Several Planets Have Been Found
by Strawberry Finch
Summary: Several planets have been found, just like Earth. Kagome's family is forced to settle on one, and her life turns wild when a 'demonic' Prince named Inuyasha enters her life. Piece by piece she relearns life, love, and what is worthwhile while unknowingly tying herself deeper into a war unlike any she could have known on her home-planet. InuKag, MirSan
1. Prologue

Prologue: The World of a Still Hourglass

Several planets had been found, just like earth. They were thousands of light years away, but that was nothing for today's spaceships, as long as you were willing to pay the cost of time: By the time Kagome and her family could reunite with her father only a few days would have passed for them, but Earth as they knew it would not be there to look back on. Thousands of years were going to pass when Kagome stepped onto that ship, and she was never going to see the pine forests growing in the abandoned highways of Tokyo again. She would never feel the yellow, dusty dirt of the shrine where millions of people had kneeled and prostrated over the course of human history. She lay there on the ground, dirtying her school uniform, cheek on the yellow dirt and turning it to mud with her tears.

Her mother had told her that she had to come home from school after her lunch period so they could get ready for the launch, so here she was. Teachers said so many kind words to her that she couldn't keep them all straight. Her friends cried so loud in the lunchroom that the vice-principal had to pull them away from her just so she could leave. She even received her first kiss, from Hojo, the most popular boy in school.

Kagome felt like she should be crying because she was loosing all these people, but the sad truth was that it didn't matter to her. She had known this day would be coming for two years now, and had reminded herself, "I won't know this person in two years," every time she saw someone supposedly important to her life. It sparked something of a revolution inside her mind: Kagome realized that most of her friends picked at each other maliciously, and went around each other's back in pursuit of trivial things like a date or more popularity. Even Hojo's good looks and suave style couldn't hide the fact that he was as dumb as a golden retriever. Sweet and pretty, yes. The most observant or interesting to be around? Not so much.

The people she would really miss were her teachers, who she had come to know so well: Dr. Honsho of her Macroeconomics courses, Dr. Tsubasa of her Foreign Policy Analysis courses, and Ms. Gillete, her English teacher. They were all so kind and instructive, and amazing people in their own way… these were the people she did not want to leave.

"At least… I can work there…" she muttered to herself. "No more school…"

Her father's position with JAXA and the government (plus her many sleepless nights spent studying and drooling all over her textbooks) got Kagome into a fast-track upper-secondary school and college program. She didn't have a college degree from the program, but she was going to take the diploma test on the trip, and would arrive, degree in hand, on… on…

She stared across the vacant shrine plaza, trying to remember the name of this new planet. She was used to its coordinate name: KeplerB.3957.B-OR.e.27.x.9920. But she was told the colonial name just a few days ago…

"Ibeji." She remembered. It was named "Twin" in Yoruba since the person who discovered the planet was from the Republic of Biafra. She was told that it was almost exactly like Earth: large continents and great oceans, a relatively docile atmosphere (as compared to some of the other colonized planets where people found out a little too late that perpetual hurricanes dominated the skies), and only basic life forms like algae and bacteria, which would make terraforming very easy. Ibeji was supposed to be the most amazing opportunity for humanity to thrive on beyond the death of the Sun, where everyone else in the world could go when the end times came.

And her stupid father decided that he wanted in on this project. He wanted to lead it. He wanted to set up the first colony on Ibeji, to be the Colonial Supervisor to New Noto. He wanted to have his name written down in history books. He wanted his family to be the ones remembered as the messianic ones, the people who soared into the stars and wove the new nest for humanity.

And it worked, Kagome thought bitterly. The Higurashi family was known all over the world now. So many foreign journalists had asked her mother 'How are you coping with this year apart from your valiant husband?', or had snapped pictures of her while she was in gym class, or even chased her poor younger brother home from school with whatever questions their gossip laden minds could come up with.

"Kagomeeee?" She heard yelled across the plaza. "Kagome! Get out of the dirt, you're getting your uniform all messy!"

She sighed. "I don't _care_ grandpa!" She called back, but she heaved herself up before the old man did it for her. Ji-chan had _loved_ all the extra attention around the shrine. She could understand why - - the place had been run-down and near bankrupt until the news broke about her father. Kagome and her family moved in with him not long after Mr. Higurashi left, leaving his father so many visitors and so much money that the old man soon ran out of things to spend it on.

Her grandfather gimped his way over to her far too enthusiastically. "Now get up Kagome, you need to look pretty for those nice photographers, its almost time to leave!"

She glared at him. "For once grandpa I'd like to _not _have to worry about looking pretty for a bunch of materialistic little mosquitoes."

This didn't seem to phase him at all. Ji-chan patted at her dress and a blouse until there were no more golden stains, muttering about things she didn't want to hear, and then pulled her by the wrist back into the house. There he tried to convince her to change into a kimono to make the departure more dramatic, which she protested after he had made such a fuss over keeping her uniform clean. Eventually her mother swooped into the back room with them.

"Gifu," Mrs. Higurashi sighed, "Please, just let her and Sota be. This is hard enough you and me, but they are still so young. Just let them be."

Ji-chan protested for a few minutes, but Mrs. Higurashi stood resolutely next to her daughter until the old man hobbled out of the room, claiming to be in pursuit of the last good pickled turnip he'll have on earth.

"Thanks Mom," Kagome said softly. She looked around her bedroom, now barren except for the two bags she was bringing with her for the journey and the pieces of furniture the government asked not to be removed due to their historical significance. "I guess this is it."

"I guess so dear," her mother replied. "How was school?"

"Children were children, adults were adults. As always." Kagome said with a weak smile. She held her breath for a moment before taking her mother's hand in hers. "Are you still planning on doing it…? The divorce?"

Mrs. Higurashi's brows furrowed together, her lips turning into a terse line. "I'm not sure yet, dear. There's Sota to consider, and Ji-chan…"

Kagome nodded. The family was so much happier with their father gone, but one year alone was not enough for her mother to regain all the fortitude sapped away by her husband. Kagome took both of her mother's hands in hers. "It'll be okay mom. I can work when we get there, we can make it."

Mrs. Higurashi squeezed her hands. There were words wanting to be spoken behind her eyes, but Mrs. Higurashi looked at her wall clock on the far wall instead. "It's time to go dear."

Kagome let go of her mother and almost turned around to look at her bedroom one last time. But her heart held her back. It told her that if she turned around to look at her home again, she wouldn't be able to leave let alone keep herself from crying.

_ This part of my life is over_… She thought to herself. _Its over… its dead. Move on now, don't look back._

There were reporters and bright flashes outside the front gate. The wind charged through the street, mixing asphalt, magnolia, and the sea in Kagome's nose. She pressed through the crowd into the waiting JAXA vans, handed her luggage to someone who's face she didn't see, and seemingly out of nowhere she was watching the sun set over the mountainous horizon while the bullet train hurried them south to the Tanegashima Space Center. She awoke when the train made a complete stop in Kagoshima, finding her mother's blanket wrapped over her. Breakfast was quiet and short, comprising of salty miso soup, steamed rice and pickled turnips. Ji-chan claimed the last time he had good pickled turnips was the day before.

The sky filled with low, gray clouds the closer the ferry from Kagoshima to the island of Tanegashima came to its destination. Kagome stared out at the sea intently, refusing her brother's calls to come play with him or her grandfather's desire to have a sitting meditation session. Eventually she started walking around and found a satsumaage vendor operating a small kiosk on the ferry deck. She bought herself some lunch, but only picked at the deep fried mackerel paste. Hours passed, and soon the launch towers loomed in the foggy distance like skeletal fingers poking out of the island. Kagome tried to stare at them for a while, but they started making her feel sick, so she found Sota and played card games half-heartedly. The ship docked, and she lost herself to the whirl of transportation…

…Until Kagome found herself walking across a brightly lit, red bridge to the shuttle. It was just like the Shinto shrines she prostrated at before her family moved from Kyoto to Tokyo, with the dozens of red torii gates lining up from the front gate to the entrance of the grounds. Kagome thought back to what one of the old priestesses once told her, that a torii gate separates the world from the impure and the clean, and that the more torii you pass under the more kami will note your presence, and the cleaner the realm you enter will be.

Kagome took a long breath before taking her first step down the lattice work of red steel, following her family and the few other government officials joining the colony.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

There was no obvious lift off or count down. One moment Kagome was sitting in her family's compartment and the windows revealed the black launch towers; the next time she looked through the windows there was nothing there but vast blackness and grey blue arch of the Earth's atmospheric horizon. It didn't feel right at all, like she was playing a videogame and was waiting for the next zone to load, all the while knowing she could walk away from the game at any time and rejoin the real world.

Something snapped in her head. She didn't want to go. Earth was home. Could her family leave her behind? She could make it on her own. She knew she could. Sticky sweat slipped down her face from her forehead as she opened her mouth to speak and make her escape.

An ear-splitting crack, like lightning splitting an ancient tree filled her ears and made her clench her eyes shut.

Kagome opened her eyes again. Earth looked like a foggy volleyball in the hazy black distance. She could barely see the moon.

Another crack. She looked around; her mother and brother were looking at the window too, but her grandfather had already reclined back in his seat, waiting for the cryo-sleep drugs to kick in. She whirled her head back around to catch a glimpse of the Earth as a blue marble before another crack set in. What looked like asteroids whizzed by the window, each black except for the glint of light given by the distant sun or reflecting off of the enormous, beige behemoth Saturn. Another crack, and she saw Pluto and Charon in their rotating dance at the edge of the solar system, right in front of her. She could even make out the tiny red and green lights of the manned outpost beneath her.

A final crack, and nothing more than blackness. She felt something wet on her ankles. Looking down she saw light colored fog, and then realized she couldn't find the strength to pull her head back up. _'The drugs…_' she thought.

Blackness crept into her eyes from the edges, like the shuttle had vanished and all that was left between Kagome and space was the window frame. '_How could he do this to us…?' _her heart whispered as her mind sank into the covers of forced sleep. '_Dad took away our home again…'_

…

…

…

_Kagome…_

…

_Kagome, you must wake up now._

It was still dark, and she was so comfortable and warm. Why was she sleeping so deep again? Beh, it didn't matter, she felt so at home here, so safe, such a rare thing for her to—

_No, seriously Kagome, time to wake up._

Though her eyes were closed, she felt her brow furrow. Whoever was talking to her should just go away, leave her alone, let her have her peace.

_Okay, fine, you want to play this game? Then lets play._

Her eyes were forced open, and after a split second Kagome saw the face of a white and orange fox staring back at her, its paws on her face, one eyebrow-like-fur-thing raised.

She promptly screamed, kicked the animal in the face (which let out a sigh-like yelp), and clambered to turn around and run for it, except there was nowhere to run to. The world around her was draped in an orange and rose fog: it was light and warm but impossible to see through any more than a few meters. She looked down and saw loamy dirt between her toes surrounded by tall grass heavy with seeds.

_'Wait; toes,'_ Her groggy head finally processed what that might mean. She looked at the rest of what was 'down'. "AAAAAH! Why am I naked!"

"Because," she heard a high, nasal voice behind her begin," That is how things work when you are summoned to Takama-ga-hara."

"…The Plain of High Heaven?" Kagome repeated in bewilderment. She turned around, and saw the fox standing on its hind legs, massaging the cheek she supposed she kicked.

"That would be correct." The fox sighed. It sat down on the ground like a normal fox would, and then lay down, crossing its front paws as if crossing its legs. The fox stared at her for a few moments. "Well? Aren't you going to ask me what you're doing here, what I am, so on and so forth?"

"I figured you would tell me that in your own time." She replied. "Since you, er, brought me here… I guess you have a greater right to speak than I do."

The fox purred in laughter. "You are definitely Japanese, Kagome Higurashi. But just between you and me, you are going to have to learn an entirely different way of thinking and acting very soon, so don't stay too Japanese for very long. Figure out how to face life on Ibeji by watching and listening to other people and how they live there… but anyway, please sit down so we can have a chat." The fox patted the ground in front of it.

Kagome turned away and hesitated for a moment, but then carefully stepped towards the fox, watching her step to make sure she didn't impale a toe on something. She noticed brush marks on the ground, as if a broom had recently swept through. Amongst the grass behind the fox she saw what looked like the head of a broom attached to what could only have been a muzzle meant for a fox.

She sat down carefully, cross-legged. "Okay, who are you and what is going on here. And start with why I'm naked please."

The fox rolled its head along with its eyes. "You're naked because only life beings go to Takama-ga-hara. You're clothes don't because they're not alive… at least I hope they're not. You never know how deep mold spores can go. But anyway,

"My name is Paak, and in case you didn't figure this out already I am a kitsune in service to the Goddess Inari."

Kagome's memory flitted back to crossing the bridge to the shuttle. "So this place is - - wait, your name is 'Paak'?" She pronounced the name with her English skills.

"Paak, yes. My family was from a town called Bista in a place called Kalmykia. Ever heard of it? No? Well, it was an 'autonomous' republic in what you knew as Russia, but that's not important.

"I was asked to call you here from your sleep by Inari herself," Paak said in his helium voice. "You are very important to her, to all of us, because of what lays ahead of you in your destiny."

Kagome blinked a few times. "I've gone absolutely insane, haven't I?"

Paak tensed his chops and let out a small, defensive bark. "_No_, you have _NOT_ gone insane. Listen to me, our time is limited: Something has gone wrong on your shuttle; we only realized that something is wrong a little while ago and it is too late to change your circumstances. You are going to have to make do with what you can."

"What?" Kagome started panicking. "What's wrong with the shuttle? Are we going to die? My mother—"

"No no no no no Kagome, nothing like that. If that was what was going to happen you and I would be having a very different kind of conversation. Though actually you wouldn't be talking to me, you'd be talking to Jerry, and he's not… very…" Paak shook his head. "Never mind, never mind, the point is you are not going to die."

"Then what's wrong with the shuttle?" Kagome asked.

"I cannot explain what is wrong specifically, but I can tell you how to explain it yourself when you wake up. Ready? The co-pilot is from the U.S.A., and she is new to the job. It was a simple mistake, but one with great consequences. That is all I can tell you."

Kagome felt the urge to ask for more information, but Paak just told her he couldn't help her in that way so she held her tongue. "Okay… and how should I deal with the situation?"

"Tell the co-pilot to check the cargo bay." Paak said. He tapped the ground twice and a large sundial popped out of the dirt, scaring Kagome half to death. Paak observed it for a while, then flicked it over with his nose. The sundial whirled around blindingly until it turned into a large digital clock.

"Excuse me for a moment…" Paak said nonchalantly. He poked at one of the numbers with his nose, and a deluge of flowers burst out of the clock and shot Paak all the way out of the grassy area.

Kagome stared slack jawed for a moment, not sure of what to make of the sundial that just turned into a clock, which then turned into a flower cannon, or the talking fox that just flew fifty meters in the air. She decided there must have been heroine or cocaine or something else illegal in the cryo drugs when Paak scampered through the grass terribly flustered. "Jerry, you hawk turd, I'll get you for that!" he screamed.

Kagome barely made out some other nasal voice yell out "fat chance" in the distance.

"Ahem, well, _anyway_," Paak began, standing up on his hind paws and brushing petals out of his fur. "That is that. I'll be checking in on you every now and then, Kagome, so… yes. That is that."

"But why did you call me here?" She blurted out.

"I already told you. There is a problem with the shuttle and you—"

"No, I mean why ME. You said I was important to Inari, who watches over rice and production and success and whatever else she looks over, and that it has something to do with my destiny. What's going to happen then, and why am I the only one who can… do it I guess?"

Paak stared at her intently for a few moments before shaking his head. "I can't tell you. The future has yet to be determined, so I don't know how it will unfold, but the way it is aligning means you are going to be more important than you know. The main thing I can say is that Inari believes you hold the 'key to understanding via ancestry,' whatever that means."

He scampered back to his place on the other side of the brushed down dirt. "It is time for you to go Kagome. Don't loose faith in yourself or the bigger picture: You can help yourself, and the bigger picture will give you hints about what is coming next. See you later."

There was a sparkle in Paak's right eye, and suddenly Kagome couldn't hold herself up. Her body collapsed backwards, her eyes slipped closed, and her mind wandered as she heard something about Jerry and bicycles and getting payback…

…

…

…

Air air AIR AIR. Kagome's eyes snapped open, watering. No air, can't breath. Her head whirled. Lights flashing, blaring siren. Mother with a cup on her face. Sota shaking and grasping his throat. Hand came to her face with a cup.

Oxygen surged into Kagome's lungs so fast it made her want to cough it back out. Her restraining device snapped off of her and she slammed onto the ground. She scraped her knees and elbows, but she could breath, and when she regained the energy she looked up to check that her brother and grandfather had oxygen masks on too. A crew member, blonde, male, brown eyes, was passing them out, telling her family to keep them on and adjust the pressure settings, but Kagome knew his words fell on confused ears.

"What happened?" Kagome asked him, trying to jump off the floor.

"Ma'am, everything is fine, please remain in your seat," He insisted gently.

"I woke up unable to breathe, and cryo-drugs don't let you wake up if there is no air," she blurted out. "Which means that we've gone the full distance we are supposed to." She looked out the window. "There is no planet outside, and apparently life-support has either broke or it has reached a capacity threshold and needs to be recalibrated, which needs to happen once every thirty episodes of long-space travel; we've only gone one. Something is seriously wrong."

The man looked towards Mrs. Higurashi and double-took at her confused expression. "Did she understand any of that?" He asked, pointing to her mother.

"I'm the only one here that understands English. Please, take me to the cockpit. I may be able to help."

He leered at her. "Please, stay in your seat. We have the situation under control." The man turned and strode out of the room, Kagome at his heels.

"No you don't! Please just let me-"

The door slammed and locked in Kagome's face. She stood there a second, realizing that she hadn't really explained to him how she could help… wait a minute, how could she help again? The cockpit, the co-pilot, the cargo bay. Got it.

Except wait, this was all coming from what was most likely a dream interlaced with crack and PCP for all she knew. What the hell was she thinking, claiming that she could help? This was ridiculous, she should just do what her father said and stay in her seat.

"The man," She corrected herself. The blonde man told her that. His behavior was just like her father though: always having to be in control, isolating the family from him, acting so secretive and angry whenever questioned. She remembered what he told her right before he left for Ibeji. That he was glad they were leaving Kyoto so she would be forced to ignore the kami and shrines and, "That fodder for naivety."

And then of course they went to live with her grandfather who was the caretaker of a shinto shrine. Kagome loved the way the world worked sometimes.

_'If I really was just visited by kami,'_ she thought to herself. '_Then I may be able to help. And if I'm wrong, we're all going to die in outer-space anyway._'

Kagome looked at the closed door in front of her and almost laughed out loud. It locked from both inside and out. She rolled her eyes and unlocked the door from the inside once the officer's footsteps faded, then snuck into the dark, cramped hallway lit only by flashing red lights.

People were yelling to each other in the distance. She strained to see down the stairs to her right and up the hallway in front of her. People were running around more downstairs from the sounds of things, but otherwise the coast was clear. She bolted down the hallway, stopping midway to take off her shoes to make less of a racket.

The hallway split in two directions; she darted left where she could make out several rising staircases. There were three in all; industrial grade metal meshwork, but the one on the far right had a red light flashing above it. She ran up that one, guessing that the light was probably placed so important people coming down the stairs wouldn't trip. When she found herself outside of a room marked "RADIOACTIVE", she figured she'd guessed wrong and went back to the second staircase instead.

Two flights of steps. Four. At ten Kagome realized her clothes were soaked with sweat and her hair was sticking to her neck. The yelling started getting more distant now. Twelve flights and she was suddenly blasted by fluorescent light and a vent fuming ice-cold air conditioning. She could see four short flights above her leading up to an open steel door. She gripped the handrail a moment to catch her breath before leaping up the four flights, landing in the room where someone was yelling. She also landed smack into the chest of the blonde haired officer.

They both cried out for a moment before they tumbled onto the floor. The yelling in the room stopped, leaving only several beeping sounds bouncing off the walls. Kagome pushed herself off the officer and looked around. Half a dozen men and women were in the room, looking irate and startled, except for one. She may have been American but her ancestral roots were in East Asia: she looked like a soldier shocked in the middle of battle.

"You!" Kagome blurted out. "Are you the Co-pilot?"

"She was until she sent us off course!" Another white haired man roared through his oxygen mask. "Get out of here girl, you do not have the proper clearance-"

The blonde man was getting up and moving towards her. _'Gotta move fast_,'

"I don't know what happened, but check the cargo bay!" Kagome found herself screaming at the end of the sentence. No time to critique herself, the blonde officer was on her now, pushing her out of the room. "Check the cargo bay, it'll be okay!"

The man had her and pushed Kagome out of the room, closing the door behind her. "I told you to stay in your room, miss." The blonde man growled at her, only the basest level of military civility keeping him from outright yelling at her she figured.

"I had to tell them that, and that was all." Kagome insisted, but she hurried down the steps the officer pushed her down without a fight. She heard him start to say something angrily several times, but each time he cut himself off, and the rest of their trip down into the hellish dark passed in silence.

That was until they reached the door to the Higurashi's room. When the door opened, revealing two very concerned faces and one mildly miffed, the officer was called to pick up his radio. "What is it?" He asked exasperatedly, pushing Kagome into the room.

"Kagome, where did you go? What's going on?" Her mother asked, catching her and giving the man a dark glare. Sota snapped onto both of their legs.

"I don't know what's going on Momma. But… you know how we used to get visited by kami?"

Mrs. Higurashi and Ji-chan stiffened and locked eyes on Kagome. "Yes… I remember…" Mrs. Higurashi replied.

"Something very weird happened in the cryo-sleep. I was visited in a way I've never been be…fore…" Kagome heard the officer saying something in a harsh whisper. She turned around to see him give her a pained look.

"Excuse me, I've been asked to… examine the cargo bay…" He said with a slight rock of his head. He gave a half-hearted salute before closing the door; Kagome heard his footsteps for a few moments before fading into the sirens.

"Kagome, truly, what is going on?" Mrs. Higurashi asked, pulling her daughter over to their seats. Kagome sighed, and explained to the three of them the events in her 'dream': Paak, the co-pilot, the importance of the cargo bay, but she decided to leave out the part where her destiny was important. When she finished the sirens suddenly turned off.

The four Higurashis looked at each other before turning to look at the door and wait. It only took a few minutes for a few sets of boots to be heard clanking down the hallway towards their room. The door opened, and the woman Kagome saw earlier stepped through the door with the blonde officer behind her. She looked worse for wear, but there was an undeniable look of vindication on her face.

"Excuse me, Family Higurashi," The woman said in perfect Japanese. "I have come here to… explain things. May I come in?"

"Only if you name yourself, woman." Ji-chan said through his oxygen mask. Kagome and her mother shot the man an equally dirty look.

"Of course," The woman said, stepping into the room. The man stayed behind, and closed the door. '_Odd protocol…_' Kagome thought to herself.

"My name is Sango, Master Sergeant Sango Taijiya. I am the co-pilot of this vessel, the Mukade." She said. "I understand that you are the family of Takoru Higurashi? Unfortunately I have some bad news.

"When imputing our destination coordinates, I… I made a mistake and… I put in our path using miles instead of kilometers. The computer caught the mistake and compensated, but it measured our angle of trajectory incorrectly. When this happens any compensating measurements are overruled by the computer and what was input is followed instead, and at the end of the traverse cryo is turned off for mitigation."

"Ma'am, you just used a lot of very big words." Ji-chan wheezed out.

"We over-shot." Kagome translated. Sango looked to her with a look of deep remorse; she couldn't have been more than a few years older than Kagome herself. "We were heading for Ibeji, but the computer didn't aim us correctly, and since that was the second trajectory mistake the auto-pilot followed the original faulty directions and sent us off to the middle of no-where space."

"Not entirely!" Sango interjected. "We know exactly where we are, and because of extra fuel stores found in the cargo bay we will be able to make it to Ibeji easily from here. But there is another problem…

"A lot of time has passed since we got in this shuttle. It's only been a few hours for us, but back on Earth it's been thousands of years. We tried WHC radio communication with Earth and we've heard nothing back. We will have readings soon as to the status of life there, but it is safe to say that our home planet is no longer home."

"Then neither is Ibeji." Mrs. Higurashi whispered in her facemask. Kagome felt her mother tense her whole body.

"What?" Ji-chan yelled. "Speak up woman, I can barely hear you!"

"Dad is dead, grandpa!" Kagome shouted at him. "If the ship had gone where it was supposed to go then we would be seeing Dad right now, but we overshot by a large amount. We passed Ibeji and it's been hundreds or maybe thousands of years since we passed the planet. Dad is dead, and by the time we get to Ibeji there is no telling what is going to be there."

The room turned very silent as Mr. Higurashi's face darkened.

Sota looked at his mother and his sister before whispering, "Isn't that a good thing?"

"Sota, hush." Mrs. Higurashi cooed, but Kagome saw Sango double-take. The longer Kagome looked at the master sergeant, the more she saw the sudden onset of age, like the war-time refugees Kagome had met as part of her intensive courses.

"Did you know people on Ibeji?" Kagome asked. Sango's jaw clenched, but it was obvious she wanted to be crying instead.

"My father…" her eyes fell on Sota. "And my little brother…"

It was going to take a few days to fully recalibrate the life support system, but a few hours after Sango's visit the Higurashi family was given the green light to breath without their masks. They were also given free reign to go about the ship excluding certain red coded areas (which Kagome learned included the radioactive engine room she found earlier). Sota was the first to capitalize on the new freedom, pulling Kagome along with him exploring as soon as the coast was clear, leaving their mother to deal with the senior Mr. Higurashi. Kagome didn't want to leave her alone, but she didn't know how to keep Sota quiet in the face of their family's remorse. Of course, their father beat them and belittled them and treated them like insignificant peons, but he was still the man their mother fell in love with at one point. He was still the man their grandfather helped bring into the world. That had to count for something.

By the third day Kagome had to fight not to protest the cardboard like bread the Americans brought them for lunch and the strange, salty, pressed meat called 'span,' or 'spat,' or something. As her brother grabbed her wrist and tore down the hallway for yet another in depth exploration of the Mukade, Kagome saw the blonde haired officer passing by in the hall ahead of them. "Hey Sota," she said to him in a whisper. "How about we play a new game."

"A new game!" He thrilled over the very idea. "Oooooh, tell me tell me tell me!"

"Shh, shh shh quiet!... The name of the game is… is… Soldier in Training!" She said. "You have to find one of the officers on the ship and follow them around, learn how to do what they do, and then do it even better than they can do it themselves. Got it?"

"That sounds like a stupid game." Sota replied. He looked down the hall as the blonde officer put out a cigarette, rubbing it on the steel wall and then flicking the roll of tobacco down to the ground. "I call that one!"

Kagome watched her brother shoot down the hallway after the blonde haired officer. The man stopped with a look of mild terror on his face as the little Japanese boy moved like a rocket towards him then stopped less than a meter away. Sota picked up the cigarette, drew in a long breath of it and pretended to blow out smoke for a second before coughing and hacking and slapping the cigarette against the wall, squishing it to the thickness of paper.

He looked up at the man, who stared at the boy. "Konnichiwa, yakuin-san!"

"Uhh… hi." He replied.

"Hai?" Sota asked.

The officer's concerned look deepened. "No… just hi. Like hello."

"Hai rai-kero…" Sota repeated. "Future in the yes? {literal translation] Mr. Officer, why are you stupid?"

"When are you going to get it that I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE SAYING?" The man hissed before stalking down the hall on the left. Sota puffed out his chest, made wild waves of his arms like he was trying to kill a ghost, and then followed the man's march down the hall.

'_Well… all right then…'_ Kagome thought to herself, standing up straight, turning on her heel, and walking down the way she came. She was about to reenter the family's room until curiosity struck her: what was down that stairway that eventually led to the cargo bay?

She checked in on her mother and grandfather for a moment, the latter of which was still refusing to speak, before jumping down the curling stairway. Only the occasional yellow light helped her see where she was going, which eventually turned out to be another long hallway with symmetrical doors on either side. As she started walking down the metal grating, clanking with every step, she made out a faint but undeniable sob from behind one of the doors.

She stopped walking and listened for a few moments. In the middle of the hallway on the right. Kagome stepped down that way until it was clear the crying person was in the door right next to her. She opened it carefully, and did not feel surprised to see Sango Taijiya's head whip around to meet her gaze.

The room was dark aside from five candles set up at the far end where Sango was sitting. A small mat was lay down under her legs, and a bowl of dry rice in front of her, holding two long sticks of incense: a funerial meditation.

"I'm sorry, I heard someone—eh, you, crying, and…" Kagome trailed off. Sango didn't take her eyes off of Kagome, watery and tense, but slowly her head slipped downward. Kagome carefully closed the door behind her and stepped closer to Sango.

"What do you want?" Taijiya hiccupped out. She sounded at her wit's end.

"…just to help. There was once a time when I was training to become a miko."

Sango's eyes flew back up to Kagome's and then to the incense, but returned to the ground.

"…that is until my dad decided he didn't want any child of his learning about something as "stupid" or "unproven" as religion. He was… My dad was not the nicest of people, or attentive, or really much of a dad at all really… I keep trying to bring myself to feel sad about his passing, but it really feels like a burden has been lifted from my mind."

Kagome had slid down to the ground next to Sango, who still stared downward. "My dad was nothing like that." She said. "He took care of us and played with us, and…Kohaku…" A new wave of sobbing erupted from her, shaking her whole body. Kagome pressed her body up against Sango's and wrapped her arm around her shoulder, letting the co-pilot, the woman, her fellow terrified human being cry her eyes out onto her smelly old school uniform.

It stayed like this for a while until Sango could breath calmly again. Kagome looked down and watched Sango pick up the cigarette lighter used to light the incense. "The other officers here don't understand…" she said. "There are only two of us with any family—who had any family on Earth or Ibeji. Staff Sergeant Hazel's atheist, so he's dealing with things his own way, but… the others don't understand that I'm supposed to put the last water on my family's lips. I'm supposed to be there with the bodies, during the cremation and the bone picking, I'm supposed to find the proper place for the family's grave. They just keep yelling at me, telling me to do my duty – why can't they understand that _that_ is what I'm trying to do!"

Kagome took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "The entire crew is American, correct?"

Sango nodded.

"Then I'd guess a lot of them grew up understanding death in the Christian tradition instead of the Shinto or Buddhist. To them, when someone dies they are dead, risen to heaven or hell or limbo, and that rising will happen whether or not they are there for the funeral. Or maybe they're atheist like… sergeant hay- Hazel? I get it right? They handle the matter differently than you and me. To us, when someone dies they are reincarnated after the proper burial, but that can't happen unless it is done properly, and it keeps the dead as hungry ghosts until their abolitions are paid."

Sango nodded slowly, her head sinking further down.

"But to me," Kagome pressed on. "There is more than one way to respect the dead properly, to do your duty to them. I think right now, because your heart and mind and spirit are in the right place, you ARE doing your duty to your family. Moreover… well… your brother and your father may have extended their families to include more people before they passed on. It's possible that your brother oversaw the proper burial of your father, and your brother's children looked after his."

Sango's head lifted slightly. Her hands stopped fiddling with the lighter. "You really think so?"

Kagome smiled slightly and nodded.

Sango looked back at the ground. "You know, I never actually learned your name."

"My name is Kagome, Kagome Higurashi."

"Sango Taijiya," she replied. "How did you know there was extra fuel down in the cargo bay?"

Kagome panicked for a moment before the room's door burst open with a clang. The girls whirled around to see the blonde man and Sota mock brawling with each other, yelling at each other playfully in their different languages. The man looked up from where he was on the ground, panicked upon seeing his commanding officer, and jumped straight up into a salute. Sota hung onto his arm with his teeth, imitating the sounds of their old cat.

"M-master sergeant Taijiya!" He stammered. "Apologies ma'am!"

"At ease, sergeant." Sango replied. "Everyone has to blow off some steam one way or another Hazel."

The man's shoulders slunk in relaxation, though he started trying to pry Sota off of his arm. Kagome got up and flicked Sota in-between the eyes, making him yelp and let go.

"Ooooowww, Kagomeeee!"

"You've done enough, Sota." She replied. Kagome glanced up at the blonde man named Hazel (apparently), who frowned in confusion. She looked back at her brother. "Sota, do you remember your English lessons?" She said slowly and carefully in her second tongue.

Sota nodded.

"Here is a new game – try to talk only in English." She said, setting the eight-year old down to his feet.

"Okay…" Sota replied. He looked up at Sergeant Hazel, then back to his sister. "Can… we… you and me… play?" He asked the man.

Sergeant Hazel looked uncomfortable with his commanding officer sitting right in front of him, but Sango waved him on. She stood up, blew out the incense, rolled up the mat and followed behind Kagome to leave the room.

"Sure." Kagome heard him say awkwardly. Almost at the door, she turned around to see Sota hug Sergeant Hazel's leg, silhouetted in the candle light.

"Cool! You better than my dad!" Sota cried out in his awkward English. Kagome saw Hazel stiffen, but then his hands slowly reached down and hugged Sota in return. She remembered that Sango said that only Sergeant Hazel had lost anyone else right when she caught a tear rolling off his cheek and splashing on the ground. Kagome quietly exited the room, hearing Hazel's voice crack when he asked, "W-what do you want to play, sport?"


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Kagome awoke breathing easy. '_That was a nice nap,_' she thought to herself lazily. '_I should do this more often when I'm off from schoo—oh…_'

Her eyes opened, and though her vision was hazy it was still obvious that her dreams and reality had gotten mixed up. She was supposed to have just woken up from a nice catnap during summer break, but instead found herself surrounded by stars.

Something red - - there was something red outside the window. It was lustrous and heavily cratered from what she could see. She rubbed her eyes, or attempted to until realizing she was still strapped into her seat. Unfastening the lock at her wrists Kagome squinted out the wetness of her eyes, rubbed away the dust that had settled on her face in cryo, and looked out the window at Ibeji for the first time.

In an instant she felt her blood run cold and hammer in her ears. Ibeji was red and cratered all right, and completely devoid of atmosphere and life. Everyone on the shuttle, they were all going to die, the last humans in the universe possibly. How could life just end this way? What about what Paak said? Was that all just a dreaming hallucination? _'Dammit NO!'_

~"Higurashi family and crew: This is co-pilot Taijiya. We have arrived at Ibeji, and are picking up excellent electrical signals from the surface. Please remain in your seats and strapped in as we prepare for a splash landing."~

Kagome blinked. "…splash…landing?..."

How… what… But Ibeji was right there in front of her in the window: Kagome could even see its small moon coming around its right side! Whoa, a purple moon? That was weir—

A hazy, powder blue arc shifted up from below the bottom lip of the window. It continued to shift higher up the window and increase in size.

"Ah… well… that would be a planet."

* * *

"Will you take more sugar with your tea?" The caramel skinned waitress asked.

Miroku looked up at her from over the pamphlet of papers he had been reading. He loved that kind of skimpy, black and white outfit the girls wore at this café. So curvaceous and… _bouncy_…

"No, thanks," He said. The waitress nodded and started walking past him.

"Though I'd love to have more of you." He said using his deep voice. The girl's gaze flitted to his for a moment, before he laughed lightly and winked at her. "Don't worry, beautiful, if I was really coming on to you I wouldn't use a pathetic line. But just to let you know, that outfit really does suit you; now hurry along and have a good rest of your shift."

The woman blinked a few times before giving a confused smile and blush. She turned around slowly and walked away with increasing speed until she flat out ran back inside the café. Or she tried to anyway, as she walked into a locked glass door; thus it took more than one go to get inside.

Miroku smiled, shook his head slightly, and returned his attention back to the pamphlet, though his mind wasn't on the words there at all. His mind wasn't on the shimmering red and violet sunset or the lapping seaside just beyond the bricks of the café patio nor the savory, luscious aroma of his tea either. No, he was thinking about the impressed young waitress who was going about telling her fellow coworkers about her encounter with this young professor outside, and how th senior waitress was going to come out to serve him in place of the more impressionable girl in just a few minutes. Once the senior waitress came out he'd double take at her, guffaw a moment, apologize profusely, and then lay the foundations of one hell of a future 'entanglement'. It's not that he thought the young waitress wasn't really pretty: he did. But Miroku liked women who knew how to take control of situations, like the bombshell senior waitress he saw when he came in.

Just about the time he finally got himself to think about what was written in front of him in _The Journal of Biochemistry, History, and Evolution_, he saw the senior waitress walk out the door to the patio. He waited until she cleared her throat to announce her presence.

"Your tea is cold sir; I'll refill it for you."

Miroku looked up at her speechless.

The woman stiffened. "Is there anything else sir?"

Miroku lifted his arm and pointed at the sky. The woman's eyes traced his jacket sleeve until she too was looking at the growing black dot in the violet clouds. The black dot soon turned into a streak. The two looked around: no one else seemed to notice.

An uproarious bang and roar.

Miroku removed his hands from his ears and looked back at the dot, which was now a streak with what looked like a massive black circle of smoke where whatever-it-was broke through a large cloud.

Miroku looked behind him. They were right at the edge of Prialata Bay, which was where whatever what was falling was going to hit in less than a minute.

"GET EVERYONE INSIDE OR UP THE ROAD!" Miroku yelled, jumping to his feet, grabbing the waitress and bolting. He heard people stammer and scream behind him, but he didn't turn back, jumping through the glass door broken by the sound blast.

"SOMETHING'S GOING TO CRASH INTO THE BAY AND WE'RE GOING TO GET HIT BY THE WAVE! GET ACROSS THE ROAD AND HEAD UPHILL!" he yelled again. The senior waitress snapped her hand away from his and glared at him. Some people closer to the patio were panicking and running inside, but a fair amount of the customers and staff inside seemed stunned or skeptical.

It sounded like a bomb, but Miroku didn't have to look behind him to know that whatever fell from the sky hit the water. No one wasted any time trying to get out of the café now, clambering over other people, punching and kicking others out of their way to squeeze out the front door. Miroku slumped his shoulders, noting how the numerous, well-to-do customers didn't consider jumping through the broken front windows to escape: their behavior created a wall of bodies that trapped everyone else behind them.

"Is there an alleyway door?" Miroku asked the woman. She nodded and started to explain how to get to it. "Don't tell me, lead me!"

The woman jumped over the nearby bar, as did most of the staff, followed by Miroku as the growing roar of water started to shake bottles and plates. Through the kitchen filled with clanging silvery objects, down two steps out the door, a sharp turn to the right to avoid hitting the adjacent building and Miroku ran for his life, grabbing what looked like an elderly cook and throwing the hobbling man over his back and booking it.

Miroku caught sight of some of the fleeing customers trying to start their cars to get away: he couldn't find the breath to yell at them to just run. He made it to the sidewalk across the street when he heard the thunderous rush of water, the groans and pop-splintering of thick wood, the crystal crash of plates and glasses, all mixed with screaming. A tree was nearby: He jumped onto its trunk and pushed himself up three branches high when just couldn't do anymore. Only then did he look behind at the place he left his reading materials.

"Oh, that's not that bad," he muttered to himself between heavy breaths. Water had splashed up onto the road but waned there, either pulling back into the sea or slipping into the drains. A chorus of inanimate groans altered Miroku to the collapse of the patio and bay-side café, which split so loudly it made his jaw hurt. The man on his back began screaming at the sinking mass (which only sank about six feet before hitting the sandy bottom of the bay), but Miroku didn't pay any attention to him. Instead he looked at what looked like a large meteor that had hit the bay. "How could something that big not have killed us…?" He wondered aloud.

Miroku dropped back down to the ground, wishing he had worked out a little more than he was these days, splashing through the few inches of sparkling water left on the road as he crossed it. The old man jumped off his back and ran over to the café sobbing angrily; Miroku did not to stop him. '_Is it just me or does that meteor look a bit too angular?'_

He ran over to the garage shed and unlocked his motorcycle, not even clipping his helmet's strap on before revving the engine ('_Oh thank the mothers its not water logged')_ and blasting out onto the road, doing his best not to hit the stunned people of Prialata jumping out of his way. In ten minutes he was at the city's docks and found a woman with red hair and green eyes working hurriedly to empty out her boat.

"You!" Miroku yelled at her as he ran down the stone stairs. The moment she looked up was also the moment he slipped, yelped, and tumbled down the remainder of the way to the docks. He held his butt for a few moments until she was by his side.

"Hey!... Hey, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, don't worry, I've had worse. Can you get me out there to that thing that just hit the harbor?"

"Must've had the same idea as me," the woman said. She slipped her head under his arm and helped on board her vessel. "Grab a bucket and help me flush this place out: the moment I'm not dodging smoke shrimp in my boat is the moment I get us over there."

Miroku jumped in, and jumped back out when he saw that there were indeed smoke shrimp on the deck of the boat. He rolled up the sleeves of his violet business shirt, stepped back inside, took hold of a red bucket, and started throwing water over the side, being a bit more careful when dealing with the gray, domed, volleyball sized shrimp as they clacked their tails around in distaste.

"Looks like you didn't have much water in here to start with!" Miroku yelled at the woman.

"There was more here a few minutes ago!" She hollered back. " But I was already here, so I got an early start. Just get the critters out of here and then we'll head out!"

Miroku attempted to snatch some of the giant shrimp with his bucket, but they were scuttling around the boat now searching for more water to breath in. More than once he found their pinching tails clamping onto his fingers or found himself slipping and seeing the inside of the bucket first hand. After just such occurrence he shoved the red bucket off his head and chucked it at one of the shrimp. It jumped and skittered over to the back of the boat.

The woman appeared out of nowhere wielding a broom. "_This is NOTa fishing vessel!_" She yelled before thwacking five of them back into the water. Miroku sat where he was and kicked the others (which were scuttling for their lives) back towards the broom wielder. In less than a minute Miroku and the woman were the only ones left on the boat.

"Here, put this under the seats!" the woman said, throwing him the broom and leaping over Miroku to the front of the boat. "Then hold on to something!"

The engines chuckled a few times before settling into a smooth rumble. Miroku threw the broom underneath one of the seats and grabbed a life jacket when the boat burst out of the harbor, narrowly missing several sailboats. "Are you crazy!" He yelled up at her.

"No, I'm not lazy!" She yelled back. They were entering into the main part of the bay: the crashing waves were calming down from the impact, but the maroon sunset was tainted by drizzling rain. "What would make you think that?"

"Nothing, never mind!" Miroku yelled, moving up to the passenger seat of the boat.

"What's your name?" She hollered at him.

"I'm Miroku! You?"

"I'm Ayame!" She yelled back with a smile. "So you're from Napan I guess?"

"I'm from Noto, so yeah!" He replied. "You too I guess!"

"Nope!" She yelled back. "I'm from the great city of No Kami in Sokaku!"

Miroku muscles tensed. He only now noticed that Ayame had pointed ears… and a tail.

"You're a demon!" He blurted out.

"Yes captain obvious, I am. A wolf demon to be precise!"

It looked like it was still going to be a minute or two until they reached the angular black thing. "I'm not one of those people who thinks demons eat people!" He yelled.

Ayame smiled at him. "Good, then we won't have to have that argument!"

"What are you doing all the way down here in Prialata! I mean you're practically at the equator, isn't that bad for you guys?"

"There are a few different kinds of wolf demon!" She yelled back. "I'm Forest Wolf. The kind of wolf demon that has problems is the kind from the Snow Wolf clan!"

"Ah… okay then!" Miroku yelled.

"And you?" Ayame yelled curiously. "All the way up here in Prialata from Noto 3000 miles to the south? Isn't this bad for a _human_ like you?"

Miroku almost replied bitingly but he saw she was laughing. '_Just teasing…_'

"I'm a professor of Biochemistry and History!" He yelled back. "I'm out here doing research!"

"A professor in two fields?" Ayame yelled in surprise. "You must have been a slave to your schoolwork forever!"

"Yeah, I was a real monk alright!" Miroku replied smiling, but movement up ahead cut off his thought. A large square of the black object emitted gas of some sort and started sliding down into the sea.

The two looked at each other. "If its aliens, you're killing them!" Miroku yelled.

But a moment later the large hunk of metal creaked and splashed into the water. There were no aliens standing on the black ledge, only people who looked like refugees from a strange land. As they got closer, Miroku saw a woman in a weird uniform directing the others down a ladder built into the side of the black thing. Ayame killed the engine and let the boat drift closer. She waved cautiously, and several of the people waved back. "Hey!... Are you all alright?"

The woman in the uniform shuddered a moment before calling back in a hoarse voice. "For the most part yes! There was one crew casualty in landing- - -careful there Kagome, the ladder's not stable!"

"Hai, hai!" Kagome replied in Japanese.

Sango began to ask for more help from the two on the boat, but their wide-eyed attention was on Kagome.

"Mama, Sota-san o tasuketekudasai." Kagome said, easing Sota off of her back and into the arms of her mother, who was already down on the shuttle wing.

"Watashi wa kare o hoji shimasu." She replied, taking the crying youth off her daughter's back and setting him down on the wing.

"Hey, you two!" Sango yelled at Ayame and Miroku. "We have more people, could you please go back to shore and get some more boats?"

"…why…" Ayame began in a grating growl. "Why do they speak the language of the lords? Who are you humans!"

All of the English speakers on the shuttle looked at each other confused, and then to Sango. "We are the crew and colonists intended to arrive in the Japanese colony of New Noto about 2500 years ago, but due to several mistakes and accidents in deep space travel we have arrived now instead… eh, very, very late ma'am."

"The hell?" Ayame yelled back at her. "How dare you people defile the language of the demon gods! No human has ever been permitted to speak it since the reign of the Silver Emperor! How dare-!"

"Freeze!" Sango ordered at her, her gun locked and aimed at Ayame's head, her fellow soldiers taking similar position.

Ayame and Miroku looked confused at the L-shaped black thing in Sango's hands. "What the hell is _that_ thing, you petty, defiling—"

A shot was fired. The windshield of the boat exploded in a flurry of glass. Miroku jumped out of the way, but Ayame simply looked down at the bloody bits of glass around her in disbelief.

"I am the commanding officer of this shuttle, Sango Taijiya! The people on board speak two languages: Japanese and English! Bring more boats and a representative of the local government from the shore or else we will have to commandeer your boat by force!"

"Okay okay!" Ayame yelled back angrily, twisting the boat's key and revving the engine.

"Wait, let me off here," Miroku told her. "I may be able to figure out what's going on here. Look at them – they don't look like they have any idea where they are."

"I know." Ayame growled back. "I don't like how they smell. It's human, but it weird, like… like something I don't know, like burning pencils or something. Though I don't think they're going to need me to come back - - look, a dirigible is heading over here now."

"Either way, they just blew something up over here from way over here - - not even demons can do that. I'm a professor – curiosity is my calling."

"Just don't get yourself killed!" Ayame yelled over the fully awakened engine as Miroku tossed his shoes and jacket into the deck of the boat. He took off his business shirt, leaving just his pants and undershirt, before sealing his lips shut and diving into the water. Once the people from the shuttle started helping him up onto the wing, Ayame pulled her boat back and headed back towards shore.

"I'm going to wait with you guys!" He told them as he pulled himself up. Ji-Chan and Hazel grabbed his hands and yanked Miroku up the rest of the way onto the wing. '_Only about thirty of them…_' he muttered to himself. They all looked like normal people, though it was clear they weren't all from the same place - - too much genetic variation.

"Where are you all from?" Miroku asked, wringing out his small ponytail and sitting down amongst them.

"America…" some of them muttered. "Japan…" a few others said. Then just a handful looked at Miroku and then to one of the girls who had said "Japan". Miroku tried not to panic when she spoke to them in the language of the demonic lords: they all nodded and then said, "Nippon."

"Ah… well…" Miroku said. "I have no idea what any of those place are."

"Look, we're from Earth." The translating girl said. "My name is Kagome Higurashi, my family is that of Takoku Higurashi, who thousand of years ago established a colony on this planet called New Noto. Do you know of it?"

Miroku's mouth opened but no words could come out of it. He closed his mouth and swallowed. "There is a place far to the south of here called Noto. It is the capital of the country Napan. Have you ever heard of that?"

"No, but it sounds like just a mix of the words 'Nippon' and 'Japan' to me." Kagome replied. That became blatantly obvious to Miroku only after she said it.

"Legends and historical texts say that Noto was one of the first four cities on Beji," he said. "Wait a second, what did you mean you're from earth? We're on earth right now."

"No, this is a planet called Ibeji, or Beji to you I guess - - words tend to change a lot over a few thousand years," Kagome replied, moving over and sitting down next to him. Miroku glanced to his right and noticed the girl in the uniform was still leering at him with that black thing in her hand. _'No, c'mon, I know she's hot but this is NOT the time for a hard-on, c'mon, focus…_'

"And Earth," Kagome continued. "Is the name of our home planet, and it is your home planet too. All people on Ibej—I mean, Beji. Though this is kinda weird- - - Earth is just the English name for the planet, the Japanese name is Chikyu, and Ibeji means "Twin" in Yoruba, but Beji means "all-the-same" in Japanese… why are you looking at me like that?"

Miroku shook his head back and forth. "Well for one you just told me I'm originally from another planet, or, I mean, my ancestors were. If all this is true, then… well, the religious debates around here are about to get a lot more interesting."

Kagome's eyebrow raised.

"I think you'll be finding all of that out soon enough. But tell me more about this thing called Japanese, and English for that matter. And Yo-yoruba you called it? What are they?"

"…uh…" She looked at him patronizingly. "languages… you know, how you and me are talking right now? This language is called English. Most of my family doesn't know anything else but Japanese - - and what was that other girl's problem?"

"Languages… hm…" Miroku muttered to himself. "You have no idea how fascinating this is for me. I think you guys are actually from another planet! Oh my mothers, this is the most amazing thing in the world!" He yelled standing. Kagome wasn't quite sure when he stood up – it happened rather fast.

"Uh, okay, but that other woman—"

"No, no no no, Kagome, you have no idea!" He yelled, pulling her up and hugging her, much to wide-eyed terror of her family. "All of the people of Beji have been fighting with themselves for one reason or another over the past two-thousand… oh my mothers, that timing is exactly right too! 2500 years, almost exactly since the end of the Silver Empire in- in NOTO, oh my mothers, this makes so much sense! Kagome, all of you, do you know what this means?"

Given the numerous blank stares, they didn't.

Miroku turned around and looked out at the harbor city of Prialata, laughing so deep his soul could feel his grin. "Oh my mothers… mother of earth, mother of fire, mother of wind, mother of waters, what have you brought us…?"

Kagome looked over to Sango. Together they looked at the laughing man, back to each other, and then out across the water at the strange looking city in front of them. The water was so blue it almost seemed gray or violet, they couldn't tell which one. The buildings were many and great, shaped like trapezoids with geometric and spiraling designs weaving across their outer walls with no sense of order. Silverish clouds were forming around their exhaust trail, and from what the girls could see they were causing small, localized downpours directly beneath them.

This hardly seemed like a place where something as human as laughter could exist.

As if on cue Miroku stopped laughing. "Oh mothers…" he said quietly, then turned around and looked at the newest arrivals to Beji. His stare was slow, steady, soft and penetrating. "You all… have no home… you all have nothing here, do you?"

"We have hope and our will. That's enough." Sango replied through gritted teeth. Sango rose and walked over to her, recognizing the memory of Sango's younger brother on the young officer's face.

Miroku stared at Sango without saying a thing. For several minutes there were no sounds on the wing of the fallen shuttle except the crash of strange waves, but slowly Miroku's expression changed from pity to admiration. He walked forward towards Sango, carefully pushed her gun back into its holster, and then took her hand in both of his. "Your name is Sango, correct?"

"Y-yes." Sango choked out, visibly trying to keep herself from breaking down.

"Well then, Sango… Will you please bear my children?"

Kagome and Sango stared at him for a moment, eyes wide in disbelief.

Then Sango pulled her hand out of his and smacked him into the water.


	4. Chapter 3

Addendum: I would like to thank one of my readers, HopelessRomantic183, for alerting me to the possibility of this story being removed from due to a potential purge of M rated stories in the near future. After reading the notices related to this matter, this is how I understand the situation - - allows K – M rated stories, but not MA rated stories. The MA rating denotes stories that have explicit sexual acts described (coughcoughPORNcoughcough) or extreme/graphic violence. Thus, so as long as this story doesn't tread into that area it should be fine. Though really, thank you for taking notice of this and letting me know - - and thank you all you wonderful readers! Like any passionate storyteller I love hearing when I did my job well, and even more when I do it wrong since that means I can learn from my mistakes and become even better! Keep it up you wonderful, wonderful people!

Also, I should probably throw in this blanket disclaimer: I did not create the original Inuyasha story. That was Rumiko Takahashi. Please support her by purchasing her works if you are genuinely impressed by them. If you are not genuinely impressed by some aspect of them, what the hell are you doing reading this story? Seriously, how'd you get here? Did you try to button mash your computer and arrived here by chance? If so, aren't you lucky. Now you get a story. Or rather one chapter of one, that probably makes no sense to you as you didn't read the chapters before this or the original story. So in that case you are unlucky, because you are confused. Life has its positives and negatives indeed. Don't button mash your computer. It leads to mishaps like this and long lines leading up to cranky IT people who don't understand the obviousness of how a carrot replaced your hard drive. Seriously, what cranky, pretentious folk IT people are. (insert pompous sigh)

So now, with no further caustic banter,

[though beware of iambic pentameter ^_^]

I give you…

* * *

Chapter 3

Kagome was really starting to get sick of windows. Back on Earth she looked out the windows of her schoolroom, waiting for the boring day to end. When her father was around he'd require Sota and her to be inside, and so Kagome would have to wait until he left town again before she could go out and visit the shrines and temples. Then it was the week and a half inside the shuttle where her only sense of location was gathered by a window showing a great big black nothing. Now she was in the city of Prialata, arms crossed and eyes glaring outside at the raging typhoon beyond the glass. There was no sun to warm her mood, no wind to blow away her fears… just the thudding of rain against the walls, like the drum-beat thoughts in her head reminding her, '_You'll never make sense of this world,'_ or _'Grandpa will never talk again,'_ or _'How am I supposed to take care of my family like this?'_

A flash of light outside caught her eye. Kagome looked down at the sidewalk outside the Hospital her family resided in: yup, another photographer. In spite of the whirling gales and lashing hail of water outside most people of this city simply shrugged, donned large, shiny clothes and pushed themselves through the storms. And one group of people who were relentless in their struggles in the typhoon were photographers and journalists coming to snap pictures of the 'aliens'. Kagome walked away from the window.

Sergeant Hazel sat across the room from her with her mother and brother, reviewing the basics of English. Judging from his facial expression, Hazel did not have the tolerance or patience to be anyone's teacher, but that wasn't going to get in the way of his determination to teach them a new language. Ji-Chan sat in the corner with only the light of an angry candle in his eyes. Kagome had been trying to reach out to him over the last week and a half, but she gave up a few days ago when she noticed he was only talking to her brother and the male medical staff. Kagome was starting to see how a person like her father could have come from someone like her grandfather.

The television was on, showing film footage from when their shuttle shot through the sky and impacted Prialata bay. She found it amazing that some forms of technology remained in Beji with only minor modifications, like this television, while others, like Sango's gun, were completely unknown.

Kagome ignored the news update, walking over to the lesson table and telling her family and Hazel that she was going to go visit Sango. They each nodded with differing looks of exasperation.

'_At least the doors here are similar,_' Kagome thought, sliding the metal slab into the wall, moving into the hallway, and then sliding it closed again. Doors were about the only structural thing that was similar to Earth. For some reason all of the hallways in Prialata were constructed as tall triangles that would slope up and down depending on the terrain deep beneath it. When she asked members of the medical staff she usually would only get a confused look or a simple pat on the head: this place was seriously starting to get to her.

"Kagome!" She heard Sango's voice before she saw her. "Kagome! Guess what, I – WHOOAA," Sango ran down the slope of the hallway, slipped, and rolled down like a barrel tumbling down a mountainside. Kagome tried to jump out of the way but her shoe caught Sango's sleeve, flipping Kagome around and slamming her face into the slanted walls. She fell into a corner and thankfully stopped not long after; Sango continued sliding a good three meters before rolling into another wall. For once there were no staff around to chastise them or snicker.

"…You okay Sango?" Kagome called out, trying to shake the popping lights in her eyes out of her head.

"…Gimme… a minute…" was all she heard back. Kagome rolled over into the middle of the hall, pushed herself up, and did the penguin shuffle the staff did to get down the ramp. She tapped Sango's shoulder, took her hands, and helped her to her feet.

"The world… is definitely spinning."

"Isn't it always?" Kagome replied wryly. "Have you gotten lunch yet?"

Sango attempted to shake her head a few times with bad results. "No," she eventually said.

"Then lets go to the cafeteria. Here, I'll help…" She slid Sango's arm over her shoulders and helped her start walking back up the hall. "I would say you should jump up and down to reset your equilibrium, but something tells me that wouldn't be a great idea right now."

"Whatever part of your head gave you that inclination is working well," Sango replied, closing her eyes and stumbling along. Once her feet could successfully be placed in front of each other without tripping the other, Kagome pressed Sango on what she had been so excited about before.

"Oh, right. I was going to tell you that - - nope, looking still hurts - - that I found out when we all get to get out of here."

Kagome's breath caught in her throat. "Really?" She sputtered, "When?"

"Two weeks." Sango replied. "Can we just stand still for a moment?"

Kagome obliged, though rather put out. She was hoping to get out of the forsaken building much sooner, but at least she now had something more than 'indefinite stay'. Her memory jumped back to when two nurses chided her for trying to sneak onto the roof and used that specific word to ever so politely threaten Kagome to get back to her room.

"Why that amount of time?" Kagome asked. "We've taken all the vaccines that they can stick in us and the only ill effect was when I puked that one time, and I seriously think that was because of that funky salad dressing."

Sango was silent for a moment. "The President of Zaba told me today that she was in the final stages of procuring us possible asylum in a few locations."

Kagome nodded coldly. "So they're viewing us as a burden and are trying to move us to somewhere else?"

Sango's eye flitted open and caught Kagome's. "You okay? That sounded kind of harsh."

Kagome shook her head. "That was harsh, you're right. I just… I _hate_ this place, and I hate being stuck inside all the time… but when I think about it, the twenty of us really _are_ a burden on this place, aren't we? I've been reading up about this country and planet, and from what I understand Zaba is not exactly rolling in riches.

"Well," Kagome amended herself. "_Most_ of the people aren't rolling in riches, though with the amount of silver I see everywhere it really makes me wonder why."

Sango shrugged, taking her arm off of Kagome's shoulders. "Standing isn't making things any better – lets hurry to the cafeteria.

"Also, I think I figured out why there is so much silver everywhere," Sango added as they reached the top of the hall and turned left, weaving their way around a doctor and some other suited man. "You know how everyone is so _obsessed_ about not drinking any of the water unless it's gone through that rock ritual?"

Kagome thought back to her first night at the hospital. Two nurses brought the family a pitcher of water, which Sota lunged at, but they yanked the water away with horrified screams and something about a kiss of blah-de-blah. They had asked Kagome to explain to her family that _everyone_ had to obey the Clarence, which apparently involved pouring the water through a tall glass filled with what looked like rough charcoal. Kagome recalled her annoyed expression at the nurses, but went through the matter anyway, secretly tasting the rimlets of water from the original pitcher when itchy and twitchy weren't looking. Aside from being slightly metallic in taste, it seemed fine.

"How could I not know?" Kagome replied.

"Well… take a look at my earrings." Sango said. Kagome hadn't even noticed the studs in Sango's ears until she pointed them out.

"What about them?"

"…I can't get them off, and I think I know why. Remember when we were getting rescued and the typhoon started? We all got a bit wet before they threw those strange raincoats on us - - I remember distinctly that my left ear got sloshed while my right one hardly got wet at all. I can still take the right one off if I force it, but my left one is absolutely stuck there. I think there is silver in the water… actually, looking around this place and reading up about the planet's history, silver is everywhere. And I think it _is_ everywhere - - - I think this planet is full to the brim with silver."

Kagome thought about the possibility, standing outside the archway into the rancorous cafeteria. "That would make sense: supply and demand determines economic success. If there is an oversupply and little demand, economies stagnate and people suffer."

Sango nodded. "Yes. I mean, the reason silver and gold and copper are so valuable to you and me is because they were so rare on earth: that's what the first coins were made of, and its that rarity that made them so resourceful as a reflection of what people thought was valuable."

Kagome nodded slowly with a slight smile. "…Sango, I've never been able to talk to anyone else I know about these kinds of things, about history and economics and how it affects our lives… I can't even think about how much I've hated all of this, going to a whole new planet… but in all this I met you, and I think you're the reason I haven't completely lost it. Thanks for being so wonderful."

Sango smiled and squeezed her hand as the cafeteria fell silent save for someone in the back who missed the memo while laughing. The two looked around at the room and then at each other.

"Switch to English?" Sango asked.

"Def-in-it-ly," Kagome replied, enunciating each syllable in the land's native tongue. The two chuckled as they walked into the lunch line with only curses and heated mutterings giving sound back to the room.

A large woman, a large man, and a spindly looking person whose body didn't seem to want to be just male or female stood at the food counter behind the glass. Their skin was all dark and their hair black, but the color of each person's eyes was a little different: his were dark like cherry wood, hers were a mix of grass and wood-chips, and the last person's dark like the night. Kagome had never gotten the chance to catch any of their names - - usually hungry medical staff were pushing her along too fast to even snatch her food - - but these people's tired, sparkling smiles always seemed like the sole rays of sunlight in such a rainy place.

"Here you are, baba," the one with midnight eyes said soothingly. They held out a plate with a golden cooked puff pastry, filled with steaming yellow rice speckled with red pepper flakes, raisins, pungently aromatic capers and sliced olives, inter-mixed with peas as big as grapes and what looked like cubes of ham steamed to perfection. Kagome breathed in the sweet, savory, crunchy mix and exhaled a smile.

"Thank you so much," Kagome said. She tried to hide a cringe when grabbing a large, green, pink and white pummelo half when she got to the fruit counter, dreading the bitter-sweet pink flesh she'd eventually have to scarf down, but made it through the Clarence ceremony at the end of the line with that smile plastered on as best she could. About to enter the main cafeteria, Kagome turned back and bumped into Sango as she tried to catch the gaze of the three workers.

"Hey, what are your names?" She called out. The three looked momentarily startled, but the woman started. "My name is Alandra, baba." She said. Kagome had picked up by now that the word baba was some kind of term of endearment.

"My name is Ikoku." The dark eyed one said with a wink. Kagome looked at Sango, who was smiling too. Together they looked at the man.

"My name is Hjeshdfujjsh." He said plainly.

Kagome's smile stayed plastered on her face but her eyes went wide. She thanked each of them before scurrying out into the cafeteria. _What the hell?_ Her mind screamed. _Who names their kid something like Hjis-… Hejdisi… something like that?_

Kagome found a seat and waited for Sango. Thunder roared outside and discussions picked back up by the time the sergeant found Kagome and sat down. "I asked him to write down his name for me," She said. "Apparently the English language has gained a few extra letters on 2500 years because I have no idea what this is."

Kagome looked at the napkin Sango held out. "It looks like an 'H' and then… is that supposed to be a jellyfish?"

"I repeat," Sango pointed to herself. "No idea."

Kagome put the napkin down with a shrug, picked up her spindly plastic fork-like-object (_'They say this is a fork but I KNOW forks don't have a corkscrew in the middle of them…')_, and dove into her food. Immediately her nose and tongue were swept away in the juicy leather of the olives mixed with the corn tasting savory and spiciness of the rice.

"So anyway," Sango said between mouthfuls. "The final stages of procuring asylum."

"Ah right," Kagome nodded. "You were saying?"

"We are supposed to meet with some people this afternoon to decide where we want to go. But here is the thing that is really weird for me, maybe you can figure this out: several countries have been _asking_ to send their ambassadors and attachés to us to - - oh wow, try the meat, it's so juicy."

Kagome corkscrewed a hunk of meet and twisted it out into her mouth. Somehow the flavors of the mixings in the rice had penetrated the meat mixed with what was infallibly the flavor of pork. It burst in her mouth and poured its hot, dancing tastes into her mouth.

"This really reminds me of Cuban food," Sango said, taking in another bite of rice. "The mix of flavors is just like home in Florida. Well, minus the pork, we usually had chicken instead. And the puff pastry, that's a new addition."

Sango held up a giant pea with her *fork. "Yeah, this one's new too."

Kagome smiled and took another wholesome bite before sinking back in her chair and thinking. "As for why these other countries are sending their representatives to us… I don't know. We 'aliens' are pretty popular news these days: maybe they're engaged in a game of 'who can look the most compassionate', or maybe they're trying to get in good graces with Za- Whoa, what kind of food did you say this remind you of?"

"…Cuban—aahhhh…" Sango replied with a look of enlightenment. Together they had been picking out which Beji countries had Earth equivalents they could think of. Some were easy, like Napan, or the three Merica's, each one world renowned for their devotion to "Life, Liberty, Happiness, and Democracy," though apparently each one had different definitions of what that meant. Other countries only garnered stares between the two of them: Aiila, Svani, Ko, and Assa, amongst others, were all a mystery. Zaba, or the new Cuba, just left that mysterious category.

Kagome nodded slowly and focused on her food for a few minutes. Eventually her curiosity returned to her. "So what countries are sending representatives?"

Sango swallowed a gulp of purified water before responding. "Four places: one called Iguto, another called Sokoku, a place called the Yokai Republic, and Ko."

Kagome raised an eyebrow. "The three demon states on this planet all want us lowly humans to come to their country? That's _really _strange."

Sango nodded. "I wasn't able to get any more information on what demons are either. I even asked the president what she knew about their origins: she gave me one of those 'when God created the world' speeches again. I'd hold a little bit of faith in that story if people didn't keep telling it differently."

"Maybe we should try to find that professor person?" Kagome suggested, setting her *fork down on her tray. "He seemed very knowledgeable."

Kagome glanced over at Sango, whose face had turned deep red and was crossed with repulsed facial lines.

"…or maybe not…?"

"That… LECHER!" Sango seethed. "He's been sending me mail; don't ask me how he knows where we are, I've just been getting them in my cell- I mean my room ever since I got here! One a day, always in the… in the morning!" She caught herself from cursing in such a public place, clenching her fists so hard she could have castrated a rhino.

"…Have you looked at any of them?" Kagome asked gently.

Sango sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. "The first two were enough."

Kagome dropped the touchy subject. She finished her meal and arranged with Sango to meet in a few hours when the first representatives were going to arrive. As she put her tray up on a cleaning rack, she did a once over of the entire cafeteria: Sango was the only woman there with ear piercings.

Walking back to her family's room, Kagome slowed and looked up at the pointed ceiling. Yes, the hallways and buildings and food and weather and plants and animals and language and social norms were all very alien to her: but just because things were so different didn't mean that she should reject them. Kagome's memory traveled back to when she was a young girl, attending the funeral ceremony of her grandmother.

_ "You appear very calm in the face of death." The bhikkuni said, sitting down next to a small Japanese girl dressed in a black, flowery dress. Kagome looked up at the nun, who wore nothing more than maroon robes, round glasses, and gentle expression._

_ "My daddy told me that it's stupid to cry for people who die, especially people from here."_

_ The bhikkuni nodded slowly and sat down next to Kagome. The little girl held tight fists of bright green grass. The woman breathed slowly and looked up at the hills in front of them, spotted by stone grave markers and occasional orange lilies._

_ "What do you think about the people from here?" The bhikkuni asked._

_ "They're nice," Kagome replied without hesitation. "Nicer than the people back home. And it is a lot warmer here in Taiwan. Grandma chose a good place to die."_

_ "Was your grandmother your father's mother?"_

_ Kagome's hands slowly unclenched. She nodded once._

_ "It seems your father is very upset with his mother if he is willing to say all Taiwanese are worthless. In fact, that would mean he feels he is worthless, as he is partially Taiwanese himself."_

_ Kagome nodded again slowly. "Why is my daddy so angry, miss? He doesn't like it when me or mommy cry, but he still gets mad. Why is that?"_

_ The bhikkuni sighed, looking out at the graves. "I don't know, little one, as I don't know your father. Why don't you tell me a little bit about him?"_

_ 'A little bit' did not register in the young Kagome's mind. "—"_

_ "Whoa, whoa, slow down!" The bhikkuni laughed. "It sounds like there are a lot of things that come to your mind when you think of your dad."_

_ Kagome shirked away from the laughter. "I'm sorry."_

_ "What for?" The bhikkuni asked._

_ "I don't know, but you laughed. That's a bad thing and I'm sorry."_

_ The nun frowned carefully. "Laughter is a beautiful thing, little one. I laughed a few moments ago because you were speaking Japanese very quickly, and I don't know the language perfectly! It was funny to both understand you and not understand you at the same time! You didn't do anything wrong._

_ "And when you started talking so fast, I think it is because you know a lot about your dad and don't get to talk about it very much. I don't think I can determine why he acts so harshly just from that alone. But I can say that anger is not a core emotion. Anger only exists as a reaction to pain: when we feel any kind of pain, we feel compelled to get away from that pain. Sometimes that means pulling your hand off of the oven when it is hot—"_

_ "I've done that!" Kagome volunteered._

_ "—Yes, that does not surprise me for someone as curious as you. But also some people try to get away from their pain by expressing it with other people as sadness. Sometimes this can make us feel better. But other times people try to get away from their pain by becoming angry and wanting to act cruelly towards the thing that caused them pain or anything else that reminds them of the cause of that pain. I think your dad is hurting very deeply, and he is trying to run away from his pain instead of accepting it and nurturing himself."_

_ Kagome held the bhikkuni's gaze during the entire talk. She looked down at the grass she had been clenching. "I want to see my grandma again," she whimpered. "That is pain, right?"_

_ The bhikkuni placed her hand on the young girl's shoulder as she fought back tears. "Yes little one, that is pain. It is the pain of permanent separation, feeling that you will never be able to see your grandmother again or interact with her."_

_ Kagome's head snapped up and her eye's honed in on one of the graves on the hill. She jumped up and started running through the tall grass and lilies._

_ "NO!" She wailed. "NO, GRANDMA COME OUT OF THE GROUND! GRANDMA! GRANDMA, SHE'S WRONG, THAT WOMAN IS WRONG, YOU-YOU'LL COME BACK!"_

_ She couldn't focus on screaming and running at the same time, so Kagome ran for her grandmother's grave, hot tears gushing down her cheeks and blurring her vision. She wiped clumsily at her eyes while whipping her hands at the plants, but kept running. More grass, more lilies. She felt the flowers slap her face, the leaf blades slice at her skin. Something snagged her dress._

_ "AND I HATE THIS DRESS! I DON'T WANT TO WEAR BLACK, I HATE BLACK! I HATE YOU DADDY! GRANDMA COME BACK, MAKE IT BETTER! GRANDMA!"_

_ Kagome felt whatever snagged her dress release its grip, but suddenly she was being lifted into the air._

_ "Little one," The bhikkuni began, holding Kagome with both arms so the little girl could see the older one's concerned face. "You were running in circles."_

_ Kagome looked at the ground, then back at the woman's face angrily. "PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOWN PUT ME DOWN PUT ME DOWN!"_

_ The woman sighed. "No."_

_ "PUT ME DOWN NOW PUT ME DOWN PUT ME DOWN!"_

_ She said nothing, continuing to hold the flailing girl._

_ "PUT ME DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWN!" Kagome screamed as loud and as high as she could. After a few more moments of thrashing her legs ran out of energy, and she couldn't scream anymore. She waved her arms around to hit at the nun, but they lost their energy too, and soon all there was left were tears and sobs._

_ The bhikkuni slowly set Kagome down onto the ground and sat down next to the collapsed toddler. She didn't reach out to the child or try to wipe away her tears, instead slowly closing her eyes and breathing deeply._

_ Kagome sat down too, wiping up her tears with her ugly dress. After a few minutes her sobbing softened, and she felt spent._

_ "Something you should know," The bhikkuni said, catching Kagome's gaze. "Is that there is no such thing as permanence. Your grandmother could never always be alive, but she also can never always be dead. When we die, our bodies become something else… sometimes we can become grass or lilies like the ones you see around us, and sometimes we become ash, and sometimes grasshoppers and tree roots. Your grandmother, just like my grandmother, is moving on to a new form of life. So while you may never see her face again, you may very well see her again in the wings of a butterfly or in the flowers of a cherry tree. All things are impermanent, little one, and if you can remember that nothing will always look the same, you will find peace."_

_ Kagome breathed slowly, watching the nun's eyes open carefully, hinting at a hopeful smile._

_ "So grandma…" Kagome began. "Is turning into other things now, and that is normal?"_

_ "Yes," The nun said with a smile._

_ "Then… your robes… were they once part of someone too?"_

_ The bhikkuni adjusted her glasses to look down at the cloth. "Maybe. I don't know. Everything is made up of the same elements, making us all the same, and when we know that everything and everyone that exists will one day no longer be what they are now, we can appreciate everything's unique beauty in this moment."_

_ Kagome sighed tiredly and looked down at the ground. "This dirt was once gold." She said._

_ The nun shrugged and smiled. "Maybe."_

_ "And one day it could become… a plant, it could become a tree with fruits that birds will eat."_

_ "People eat fruit too, you know." The nun added._

_ "People too! This dirt could be people!" Kagome said, smiling down at the dirt._

_ "Everything around you has been something else, and will be part of something else in the future," The nun said. "Even your body and my body are constantly rebuilding themselves, so it is quite likely there are little bits of things around here that were once part of you or your grandma."_

_ Kagome's mouth opened wide. Her heart raced as she jumped up and looked around the cemetery, the hills, the tall buildings in the foggy distance, the clouds above her threatening to drizzle. She smiled toothily._

Kagome stared at the triangular, indigo walls. '_I may be on another planet,_' She thought. _'But it is still made up of the same base elements I knew back on earth. Maybe things look weird to me now, but I will adjust, and things will change too. I can figure out a way to be okay here._'

Sota was on the floor with sleep drool slipping out of his mouth when Kagome arrived at her room and peered through the doorway. She looked around and saw that Ji-Chan wasn't there, but she also saw that Hazel still was. Kagome's mother was holding Hazel like she would Sota; his head on her shoulder, her arms wrapped around his back as he fought hard to control his sobbing. She caught Kagome's eye and gave her a knowing look. Kagome nodded once very slowly and closed the door.

Well now what? Sango went back upstairs to do something government related, and her family was asleep or counseling or probably busy getting overwhelmed at the toilet with an ancient colon. Most of the rest of the crew from the shuttle didn't really enjoy the same things Kagome did, so she had already given up on trying to get to know all of them beyond name and rank. '_Maybe I can get up onto the roof while no one is looking_,' Kagome thought to herself, heading up the hallway again. Instead of turning left at the top, which was the way back to the cafeteria, she headed right, trying to look nonchalant. The nurses had all been told to keep their look out for Kagome, she had learned via her insider contact ('_Sango you are wonderful,_ she thought to herself), so elusiveness was the key to getting to the top floor.

At the end of the corridor, which led into the nurse's staff station, Kagome crouched down and peered around a corner, thankful for once for the peculiar walls shapes. One of the nurses was talking to some irate patient, another was on the phone and staring down at something Kagome couldn't see, and another had her back turned. Do it now or wait?

Kagome bolted, crouching the entire way in a way that she was sure made her look like a Russian dancer. Not that the nurses would know what a Russian dancer was.

She skidded into the next hall, throwing a hand out onto the wall to slow herself. Picking herself up, Kagome jogged through the rest of the hallway as she didn't want to linger around the wolf's den. '_From here,_' She thought to herself, '_I go to the elevator, take a right and wait for someone to use a card key to get into the stairway and then slip in behind them…'_

She made it to the elevator right when the doors began to open. Kagome squealed, threw her arms to the corner on the left, and threw herself behind the wall, praying the people at the elevator weren't unusually observant.

"Did you hear that?" She heard a woman's, velvety voice ask.

"Hear what?" Came a man's voice. It sounded like a voice accustomed to not having to deal with the tedious minutiae of uncivilized life.

"Nothing, it's not important. Now where is that woman's room, what was her name again?" The woman asked. Kagome heard heels clack against the floor tiles.

"It is on the half floor above this one, right this way Ambassador…"

Kagome waited until the heel clacking was well down the hall she came from before peering around the corner to take a look at the first representative. All she could see of the woman was her back, but she had black hair tied up elaborately, with what looked like a green and white floret stuck in the middle. She wore something that had the draping fabric of an expensive dress but the stylistic angularity of a kimono: she couldn't place a word for it. The man, while trying to play it cool, was clearly out of his mind with worry considering how many times he ran his hands along his jacket to remove the sweat. Even the nurse's station was as quiet as death, aside from a ringing phone.

Right as the woman turned down the hallway leading towards Sango she stopped. The man was leading the way and took no notice. The woman's head tilted around until her eye caught Kagome's and lingered for a moment.

Her iris was blood red.

The woman dropped open a fan, flipped in front of her face once, and turned back towards her destination.

_'…Creepy…_' Kagome thought to herself, rushing across the way to the adjacent hallways leading to the stairs. She slipped into the small alcove in front of a janitorial closet, trained her eyes on the door leading to the stairs, and waited.

The only other things in this hallway were public bathrooms, thus the way was rather barren for a few minutes. She heard a flush in the men's bathroom. How long had he been in there for the flush only to be happening now? Kagome recalled some of the long departures of the high school boys took to the bathroom back on earth, specifically the boys whose bodies were erupting into puberty. She decided that she should kill that thought right there and do her best to forget her sex education class.

The man came out of the bathroom about a minute later, walked up to the stairs door, and went right along his way down the hallway towards the nurse's stations. Kagome's shoulders sunk: this might take a while.

After a few minutes her legs cramped so she sat down on the cold tiles, very glad she had been provided a simple set of pants and a white blouse like thing. Kagome used the moment to really examine her new clothes: they were soft but durable, as if made by a very strong weave of cotton or thoroughly beaten canvas. Her pants were loose and flowy, which was perfect for such a humid place as Prialata… she guessed anyway. She was always in the hospital so the flowiness of her pants usually meant the super air-conditioned vents blasted air right up her legs.  
Her pants were a grayish-indigo, similar to the color of the outsides of all the trapezoidal buildings in the city. The shirt she had received was thinner than her pants and still loose, and was cut in large oval at the top where her head came through. It revealed where her collarbones joined with her manubrium, but nothing lower. Now that she was looking at it, there was a strange stitch keeping the whole thing together. Kagome traced the stitch line with her index and middle finger as it zigzagged and wound around her body. It made sudden bursts with little thread and short turns where there seemed to almost be an entire spool stitched in there. She thought about the weave, and how similar it was to the patterns on the outside of the buildings here.

'_Somewhere along these 2500 years,_' Kagome thought, idly tugging at the fabric. _'The people of this place, Zaba or Prialata or whatever came before them, found reflections of themselves in their constructions, or maybe it's the other way around…'_

Kagome looked down the triangular hall. Now that she was really looking, she saw that the tiles toward the center of the hallways were always darker than those around the edges. Moreover the walls weren't completely straight. She stood up slowly and used her hand to feel the plane of the wall. She rubbed it up and down several times until she was sure of it: There was a slight but definite bump about 3/5ths of the way up the wall. She reached her hand way above her head, and found another bump running along the wall close to the ceiling.

Kagome put her hands on her hips, looking at the dark, violet and grayish passage. Checking that the coast was clear, she went over to the end of the hall where the bathrooms were. Walking very slowly down the center line and making herself aware of the shadows made by the bumps in the walls, she didn't feel any different than the way she had when she first got here. The hallway felt inhuman and vaguely dangerous, but the colors of it, of the entire city really, were so muted and calming.

She let her hands go limp. She didn't understand what meaning there was behind these walls, but she knew there was meaning, and that was better than nothing. There _had_ to be some kind of significance to this construction design. There _had _to be some reason why the same colors and patterns kept showing up again and again. And there _had_ to be something more to this strange water ritual. Sango may have been right, maybe the people of Prialata were trying to consciously remove silver from their drinking water, but Kagome knew a lot about rituals. Many times people got so used to doing something one way that they stopped asking anyone why they did it, and a behavior moved from a social activity into something revered. She'd read enough and studied enough about the miko of the Shinto shrines to know that much.

The door to the men's bathroom slid open loudly and shut just as jarringly. Kagome whipped around to see a man, not much taller than her, raising his eyebrow at her. He looked at her hand, then at her eyes again. "You about to go outside?"

"Uhh…" Kagome looked at where her right hand landed. Yup, on the stairs door. She looked back at the man – he wasn't dressed like a doctor. In fact he wasn't dressed like someone from Prialata at all: Too many dark folds of fabric that again reminded her of kimono.

The man's eyes switched from mildly curious to definitely irritated. He adjusted his hat: flat on the top, made of red felt from the looks of it and snug fitting, trimmed with gold and white and with a long, ruffled sheet of white fabric connected at the back: and pushed forward towards her, wiping something made of black leather in front of the card key reader. It chimed happily, the door slid open, and he hurried through, heading up the stairs. Kagome slunk in after him, feeling slightly insignificant.

She debated for a moment whether to go up to the roof or not - - it would make her look like she was following him like some deranged, school-girl patient throwing herself at anyone sturdy enough to hold the pangs and beauties of her heart. She sneered and shivered: that kind of naïve approach to love was one part of high school she didn't miss at all.

'_You know what, I'll probably never see him again – who cares if he sees me up there?'_ She thought to herself. She grabbed onto the handrail and hurled her up the stairs. '_Besides,_' she added for herself. _'It may not even be open up there, or maybe its spacious enough that he won't see me. Whatever, he acted like such a jerk._'

She was on the last landing until she reached the roof. The door was open above her, and Kagome could see clouds and a sky that was thankfully relatively bluish, just tinged with the hues of sunset. Drizzling sounds echoed in the stairwell, but nothing else.

Kagome looked over her shoulder suspiciously - - this was the place the two nurses had pounced her before. There was nothing there but concrete and a path leading downwards. She turned her head up at the sky, and raced up for it, heart starting to thunder.

The roof wasn't big, and still draining off water, but otherwise empty. The top was white instead of the usual violet purple color, though there were dark streaks from the top of the mid-body height walls down to where they met the foam colored 'ground'. She stepped through the doorway and nearly slipped: whatever this white roof was made of it was as smooth as marble.

To her right she saw the man with the red hat looking away, out at the part of the city already covered by sunset's shadow, though now she saw that the white sheets was in fact white hair. '_Funny, he didn't look that old to me before…'_ She thought.

His head turned far too fast for normal. He stared directly into her eyes in a way Kagome had never been looked at before. She felt like she had violated some sacred ground for grieving.

"You're one of the representatives." She blurted out.

The young man raised an eyebrow. "So you're an 'alien'?"

"I'm a human at last check." She replied. She stepped out of the sneaker-like shoes on her feet and stepped carefully onto the roof. It reminded her of home in Japan when she'd take off her shoes at the front door before entering the house.

He didn't take his eyes off her. "Well aren't you lucky."

"Not really," Kagome replied, trying to sound a little more compassionate but unable to remove a biting edge to her words. "In case you hadn't noticed, we 'new comers' haven't exactly had much _luck_ lately."

"How do you know the tongue of the Silver Emperor?" He asked.

Kagome blinked and shook her head confused. Then it hit her - - they were speaking in Japanese.

"Ugh, look, I don't know anything about this 'Silver Emperor' person everyone keeps talking about, but I'll give you this, I know he's important to all of you. And for the record, this isn't a tongue, it's a," she switched to English. "LANG-GUAGE. LANG-GUAGE. Seriously, it's not a hard concept."

She stepped out a little further onto the roof. "And the language is called _Japanese_, in case you were curious, but I doubt you were. It seems like no one on this planet is curious to know who _we_ are, they're just more interested in making sure we new-comers know only the shallow, behavioral basics of who _they_ are and making sure _we_ don't do anything _they_ don't like." She stopped and thought for a moment, her memory drawing back a resounding slapping noise and Sango's voice cursing about a lecher.

"Actually, I'm wrong, there was one person who seemed curious about us, but only to _study_ us and our ways to figure out what he wanted to know. He wasn't really interested in who we are or what kind of a **hell** we've just gone through. Did it ever occur to anyone to try to get a psychologist to talk to sergeant Hazel? I mean the man just lost his wife and two kids! Well, not _just_, but to us it seems like that! And I _know_ you guys have psychologists because I've seen them in the hospital talking to other patients. But nope, don't send them to the guy who just lost his family, or to Sango who saw her commanding' officer's head get ripped off when we crash landed, or to my grandfather who refuses to talk to nearly anyone. Oh no, no no no, send the psychologists to go talk to the fucking fat kid in the hospital who has high blood-pressure because his parents won't stop stuffing him with fried whatever the hell you fry around here!"

She was seething, panting, and from the stuff dribbling down her mouth Kagome must have been spitting too. She stood up from the predatory crouch she apparently slipped into and wiped her mouth.

"You're not making a very good first impression y'know." The man said.

"I'm not here to make impressions," Kagome replied as her mind whirled to back-pedal and figure out what was making all of this fire pour out of her mouth. _'Just a half-hour ago I told myself I was going to find a way to make do with what is here, what is wrong with me?'_

"I am here to live. That's all, live. And you guys are doing a crappy job at helping us do that."

The man turned all the way around to face her, crossing his arms with a smirk. "What gave me away?"

"Wai-wha- beg your pardon?"

He stared at her again, but somehow it was softer this time. "You knew I was a 'representative'. How?"

Kagome started at the non sequitor, but she stopped and thought about it, and as she did she felt the heat on her face calm. "Well… your clothes are different than most of the people around here for one thing, but what really caught my attention was your eyes. They're like honey or gold."

He gave a smug smile and nodded slowly. "Gold, huh… funny, most people tell me they're the color of piss."

"Well _that's_ polite of them," Kagome bit out before she could hold her tongue. '_Dammit, what is wrong with me,_' her brain yelled. _'Since when was I such a blabbermouth?'_

The man visibly chuckled, though afterwards his face glowered. "Zaba has taken all of you people in. They've fed you, they've clothed you, they're making sure you don't get sick from our diseases and that your organs can handle our food. They've even arranged for all of you to find a new place to call home on Beji, since all of you seem so upset here - - oh yeah, that's how the president described you all to the king. 'They are all so disrespectful and evasive, a bunch of pissants,' She said. What, you're not grateful at all?"

"Of course I'm grateful!" Kagome yelled back. This time she took a deep breath and focused inwards. '_I am angry, and though I don't know why I am angry it is unfair to attack this person just because I'm upset. Be gentle, remember what I've learned about the Buddha and the kami, remember the nun at the funeral…_'

"Of course we're grateful, " Kagome repeated, slower. "But we just arrived on **another planet.** Ever heard of something called culture shock? It takes a long time to get used to any new place, and we've only been here ten days. Cut us some slack. And also… there is more to life than the physical."

He twisted his face in utter confusion. "What? What does religious stuff – what does that have to do with-"

"I mean there is more to life than the material. Yes, government of Zaba has given us all of these things for free, but it would be nice if they didn't treat us like fools or look at us like we're from outer space - - well, we are kind of from outer space, but not really, just from Earth, where you guys are all from! I mean… okay, that was a bad simile, but you get my point!

"They look at us, the doctors, the nurses… when they give things to us, the way they look at us makes me know that they think we should feel forever indebted to them, as if they are inherently better than us.

"Well…," Kagome remembered Alandra and Ikoku and Hj-…hjib-…fish thing. "Not everyone treats us like that. Some of the cafeteria workers smile when they see us, and are so loving when they share the food they've made with us… But still, giving out of the kindness of one's heart is one thing, and giving out of expectation to receive something in return, even if that thing is reverence or adulation, is something else entirely."

"That's just how life works," The man replied, tilting his head to one side. "No one's really just kind to anyone else. Everyone does things just so they can get something else in return."

Kagome rolled her head along with her eyes. "Ugh, I'm not having that stupid argument with someone I just met. You just stay over there looking over the shadowy part of the city, and I'll just go over to this side where you can see the sun, and we'll just mind our own businesses until we have to talk to each other again downstairs."

She didn't wait for a reply. Kagome turned on her heel and stalked to the other side of the roof, planted her arms on the wall and huffed when she placed her chin in her hands, glaring at the buildings in front of her.

Glaring was hard to do with the tableau in front of her. The sun was sinking closer to the roaring, blue-violet ocean, and it was hidden behind tall, pale blue clouds, each starting to shimmer a deep crimson. Truly sparkle, as if there was metal in them. '_Silver really is everywhere…_' she thought.

Kagome studied the storm clouds. Just a half hour ago they made a typhoon, and it didn't seem like they were actually moving away from the city… they were just… collapsing away into nothingness.

Kagome looked down at the street beneath her. She saw some of the strange devices, reminiscent of cars and motorcycles, whirring out into the street with their szh-szh-szh sounds. A few people were slipping out onto the sidewalks too, but nothing like what was going on two streets away. Kagome had to strain to see it, but there were people one of the trapezoidal apartment rooftops, setting up a table, spreading a sheet across it and laying down plates. They were clearly talking to each other, slapping each other on the back, helping each other fill a huge glass cylinder with black rocks. When Kagome saw them slipping and laughing while using buckets to throw the water still on the roof into the Clarence tank, she couldn't help but smile.

"You know…" She said loudly but not looking behind her at the man who was the object of her words. "Even though I don't like how I've been treated here… Zabans are still… they're still people, even though they treated me badly. And as bizarre as this place is… I can still see how so many people call it home."

She nearly screamed when the man miraculously appeared right next to her, but somehow she was able to clamp her beak shut. Her eyes were still wide though: she looked over to where she felt him, about a half meter to her left. From her peripheral vision she saw his hands move from his sides to the ledge - - his skin was relatively pale but calloused from the looks of it. His nails looked like sharpened claws.

"I don't get it," He eventually said. "How could you just jump to a conclusion like that?"

"Look," She said, pointing a trembling arm out towards the dinner party. "Even if they treat us differently, these people still enjoy sunsets like me, and they still help each other set up for dinner, and they still try to share their time in the company of people they enjoy…" She brought her hand back to the wall, dropping her head down to the ledge as well and letting it tilt and rest. "This place and these people are still beautiful."

She heard him scoff. "What's so beautiful about a city that just got rained on and people slipping around on a roof like idiots?"

"Don't you know?" Kagome replied with a sly lilt and smile. "Beauty is everywhere."

He was silent for a while. "Even in piss?"

She shook her head but smiled. "In one way or another even in urine, yes. I think the Buddha and Lao Tzu would get a kick out of that one."

"Who?"

"Oh, important people for me and probably no one else, " She replied, standing up and taking a quick look at him. But it wasn't a quick look anymore when she saw he'd removed his hat and that he had akita-like dog ears on top of his head. Momentarily confused, Kagome then tilted her head softly, muttering, "kawaii…"

And in that moment the world went blank and black. Clouds formed in her eyes, rosy in color, but soon joined by orange clouds too. The clouds filled the bottom of the blackness then shot as far upwards as possible, lighting the world in their radiant hues.

"It is time," a high, nasal voice said behind her. "…that you and I had another chat."


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Kagome turned her head and, seeing nothing, turned her gaze down to the ground where Paak, the orange and white fox sat. He wriggled his nose, tilted his head back, and sneezed. "Whoops, sorry 'bout that."

Kagome gave him a confused half-smile. They then stared.

"So… do I have to sit down for the talk?"

"That's more traditional," Paak replied with a furry smile.

'_Okay then, apparently there's a tradition to this…_' Kagome thought to herself, tensing her lips as she turned on the loamy dirt and sat down before the fox, who had turned his head to nibble on his tail a moment.

"How have you been adjusting to life on Ibeji?"

Kagome blinked at him. "Don't you already know, as a kitsune?"

"Well yes, but just as there is tradition there is also social etiquette."

Kagome nodded slowly. "Okay then… I'm not sure how the adjustment is going. Sometimes that I feel like I'm going to be okay on Beji - - they've dropped the "I" at the front of the word over the last 2500 years apparently - - and then there are others that I… I want to just run away from everything I have to think about."

Paak nodded once. "I was actually hoping for an explanation of what happened on the ship."

"…The ship or the shuttle? There have been a lot of important ships in my life lately."

"The shuttle," Paak corrected himself.

"Well, you were right, the co-pilot measured the distance using the wrong measurement, and then the computer got the trajectory wrong… wait, you already know all of this, why are you even…" Kagome leered at him. "You know, a FOX of all things is not exactly what I would expect to hold himself very close to 'social etiquette'."

"I am not a fox, I am a kitsune." He replied.

"You are fuzzy, eat small things, and are of puntable size. I see little difference."

Lightning cracked in the sky above them, so close that the nearby grasses bounced in the sound wave. Kagome looked up after the lightning passed and watched as the highest parts of the clouds above her started _tumbling_, shimmering like the collapsing Typhoon she had just witnessed.

"What's-!"

"Kagome, stay calm and listen to me very carefully," Paak said in a soothing tone. After a few moments she felt his fur brush up and tickle the skin of her hip and thigh; her attention remained trained to the mauve and crimson clouds rolling in above the orange and rose ones.

"This planet, Beji you called it… It has Gods of its own, and they are not pleased to have us here."

"…as in you and me 'us' or you and Inari 'us'?"

"That second variety," Paak said. "The Gods, Kami, and spirits that hold a connection to any of the people who arrived on that shuttle have come onto this planet along with you. Most of the beings we have encountered thus far have been generally amiable to our presence, but there is one in particular that is not at all happy we are here. He refuses to give us his name or express anything more then… as you humans might say, "Get the hell out,"

"From what we have been able to deduce his power is strongest on the continent of Asigo, but whenever Inari has tried to get close to there we have been repelled."

"Asigo?" Kagome chimed in, clutching the kitsune as bloody storms ate away at the clouds of heaven above her. "I'm planning on going to somewhere in Asigo soon, that's where all of the- - I mean, several countries sent their emissaries to the people from Earth to convince them to come live in their country."

She turned to look at him. "Paak, I keep hearing about things called demons that live on this planet, and for some reason Japanese is a sacred language to them that humans aren't allowed to speak."

"Wow, that's rather bad for your family, isn't it?"

"No kidding, but are there actually… you know, demons here? Do you or Inari know if there are oni or yokai or anything on the planet?"

Paak's face scrunched up. "I don't know, we haven't been looking, but we will see what we can find. Hold on, one moment - - Hey Jerry!"

A distant, 'what is it!" was heard from the far off grass.

"Could you clean up the clouds please?" Paak called out.

There was silence for a few moments. '…ugh, fine…!' they heard. Kagome frowned as she strained to see anything in the general direction of Jerry's shouting. A cannon materialized, lit itself, and then an orange fox shot out of it into the sky. She watched it scorch its path up into the clouds where it seemed to land on pillows, and then jumped up higher into the Beji style thunderclouds high above them. Lightning crackled as he flew into the invasive clouds like a needle into fabric, and their color slowly stared to change.

"And apparently you guys can fly…" Kagome sighed. "Right when I have a semi-normal moment everything in life just goes and throws itself in a blender… ugh… how long is it going to be like this…?"

Kagome looked down at Paak, whose head was tilted. "Hm? How long is life going to be like what?"

"How long am I going to be struggling to adapt as opposed to simply living? Don't worry, it was a rhetorical question."

Paak's white 'eyebrows' frowned. "Guard yourself against emotional and spiritual fatigue, Kagome. This is tiring, but it won't always be like this. Keep your head in the moment and flow as best as you can."

One of the clouds behind Paak exploded into virulent fire. A moment later a charred kitsune soared through the air and landed in the dirt patch, coughing loudly. "Paak," it choked out, "could I get some help?"

Paak clicked his tongue, and then looked at the wide-eyed Kagome. "I guess we should conclude this talk early, so here is what I needed to say in a nut-shell: do well to remember your past and see how it connects to the present, and my personal advice would be to stay away from these 'demons' until we can figure out what they are. Now, if you'll excuse me—"

A glint sparkled in Paak's eye right as another cloud exploded. Kagome's body fell limp and her face slammed into the dirt.

…

…

…

"The arm, the arm - - one, two, thr-wait, she's awake!"

Kagome found her legs flying into the air as her shoulders slammed into wet, smooth ground. Her hips and feet followed soon after.

"We told you to stay _off_ the ceiling, is it really that hard to understand?" She heard, and then groaned inwardly. _'Oh no, not itchy and twitchy…_'

Kagome opened her eyes slowly. It was nearly night by now, and she could just make out the outlines of the two fast response nurses who had explained the Clarence to her, had barred her from visiting the roof, amongst other offenses. She also could see Inuyasha and a doctor behind them: she leered at all who were present.

"Now get up if you're awake, c'mon, get _up_,"

"Okay, okay, I'm fine, just let me - - - excuse me!" Kagome tried to shove the doctor's hands away from her breasts but he batted her hand away before pushing a stethoscope upon her. He gave a momentary sigh before reaching under her shirt and pressing the cold device against her skin again, lacking precision.

"May I at least know what happened?" Kagome barked out.

"Where's the torch?" Itchy asked.

"Here," replied Twitchy, "Excuse me doctor, one moment."

Kagome felt two cold fingers grab her left eye lids open and she was suddenly blinded with light in that eye. "Ow! Could you warn—"

"Ugh, look left _please_?..." she heard Twitchy say. "Stop making this harder on yourself; just _look left_."

"Have some patience, nurses," She heard Inuyasha reproach.

"Attaché, she's always like this, all of them are. Just go back down stairs and we'll have her ready to see you and the others soon enough."

The doctor flipped Kagome's shirt down slightly - - in her dazed state Kagome's hands found the fabric of her zig-zaggedy shirt and pushed it all the way down before the doctor snapped his fingers next to one ear and the other.

The physical interrogation continued long enough for Kagome to start to shiver in the wet wind. She slipped on her shoes as her attending staff uttered the last of the _serious recommendations_ and then she was sent back to her room alone. She rubbed the skin of her face as she wandered through the triangular halls, not a single person catching her eye. One person she couldn't see simply pushed her out of the way when they turned around the corner at the same time, gently smacking her head against the wall. Instead of protesting Kagome stood there for a moment and seethed until she could think straight again, and found herself outside her family's room.

Kagome walked inside just soon enough to see a male nurse sigh as he poured water into the Clarence tank. She watched him perform the act with Ms. Higurashi, Hazel, Sota and Ji-Chan watching, his arm and neck outstretched more than they needed to be. It felt like he was trying to say, _No,__ THIS__ is how you do it. _

The sooner they got out of Zaba the better.

"Are the representatives ready to see us?" Kagome asked as she walked into the room, trying not to stomp.

"Sango called for us a little while a-" Hazel began.

"Have dinner FIRST." The nurse replied. Kagome translated as Hazel tried with his military grace to make the nurse remove himself from the room, which quickly resulted in yelling. Eventually Kagome pushed him aside, thanked the nurse, and then led her family to the cafeteria except for Ji-Chan, who still refused to eat anywhere but in his room.

Ikoku, Alandra, and Fish-thing smiled apologetically towards Kagome as staff cut in front of her and made loud objections when she stopped to pick out a piece of fruit with dinner. The cafeteria was a nut house, filled to the brim with rancorous staff who were all lauding the resolution of the typhoon outside. There wasn't enough room at any one table for everyone to sit together, so Hazel found a seat on his own while Kagome sat with her family. It only took a few minutes for the jam-packed table to become mysteriously empty. Kagome mostly poked at the stuffed smoke shrimp in front of her: the cayenne covered giant peas poking out amongst the white flesh couldn't hide the fishy smell. She and Sota played table soccer with one of the peas instead.

The Higurashi family headed out of the cafeteria just as a few of the other officers from the shuttle started turned right towards Sango's room. Judging from their light intermingling with the hospital's staff, they were faring slightly better than her family in terms of integration. Kagome let out a puff of disgruntled air as she followed them.

The official meeting with the representatives didn't seem to be in Sango's room as Kagome predicted. Instead of heading up two flights the group traveled along a side corridor that headed down into a part of the administrative section of the hospital. Here the walls gained occasional painted geometric designs and stronger lighting, but it otherwise remained pale, violet, and triangular.

The large door-way was open when they arrived, and most of the rest of the shuttle's crew was assembled inside. The Higurashi family slunk in quietly, taking seats toward the back until Sango, sitting near the front, motioned for them to come forward and join her. Kagome couldn't help noticing several confused and sour glances at her and her family amongst the other officers: _preferential treatment usually makes more enemies than friends,_ she muttered inside her head.

The front of the room had a raised section that rolled upwards instead of using a step: it was all carpeted in a dark plum. A large map had been placed in the front of the room, which Kagome knew as the world map of Beji.

"What are all of those places, Kagome?" Sota asked her from his wooden chair next to hers.

"Try to use English," Kagome replied, noticing how all of the representative's faces illuminated in mixtures of confusion, shock, and horror at the eight-year old's words. "What do you want me to explain?" she whispered.

Sota paused and strained his face while thinking. "The… con-tin-ent. No! Con-tin-entS!"

Kagome nodded with a smile and ducked down a little closer to him. "Okay, you see that big continent in the north east?"

"Yeah. It look like strawberry."

Kagome raised an eyebrow and stared at the map. Now that she looked at it with that in mind, it really _did_ look like a strawberry: long, medium diagonal shorelines on the east and west, and a generally smooth northern shoreline. "I guess it does. Well, that continent is called Asigo…"

'_Asigo… that's just a hop, skip, and a jump away from ichigo, the Japanese word for strawberry… that's kinda weird…_' she thought to herself.

She went on to explain that the continent to the far north was called Nortica: Sota replied it looked like Antarctica only on top instead of on bottom. To the south west of Asigo was a smaller continent which Sota immediately noted looked like someone's hand giving Asigo the middle finger: Kagome restrained herself from laughing when she told him that the continent's name was in fact Finger, but it was pronounced Finn-Gur. Sota wasn't convinced of this. Niraq was the second largest continent and was on the opposite side of Beji as Asigo, and Kagome felt the name was appropriate as it looked like a giant sized version of Iraq on earth except with a huge peninsula jutting out from its northern side up towards Nortica.

Kagome hurried to explain the last two as someone had come up to the front of the room to test the microphones. The two remaining continents were situated to the south, somewhat between Asigo and Niraq. The new continents were called Nafika in the east, where Kagome learned Napan was, and Nindiya to the East, where there were four large countries whose names she couldn't figure out how to pronounce. The set of them looked like the result of someone sticking a large wedge of hard cheese into a blender just to see what would happen: Zaba was one of the few countries in between the two, made up of a few strings of islands.

"Yes, we are ready…" a large, tanned man with black hair and a green-gray shirt said from behind the microphone. "Good evening everyone. I am General Selaya of the Zaban Army. As many of you know, our president has reached out to the governments of several countries around the world to secure a place for you to call home. Tonight we have four representatives from four of these places, and each of these representatives will inform about the nature of their country, their people, and their accommodations and plans to integrate you into your new locale. Know that you do not have to decide immediately which place you would prefer to settle: one week has been allotted to all of you to make your decision.

"Our first presentation will be from Attaché Kaede from the Third Republic of Ko." General Selaya said and briskly left the stage. Kagome started when she saw the old woman dressed in what was undeniably a miko's garb, red hakama pants with a simple, white folded top. Her long hair held hints of what was once brown amongst the gray, and it flowed gently behind her as she moved stiffly up the carpeted ramp.

"I thank the General and the Director of the hospital for hosting us here tonight," the Attaché began. "And would like to recognize that neither myself nor the Third Republic of Ko view the matter of your settlement as a matter of international relations or policy," She paused and flicked a glance in the direction of the other representatives. "I am here on part of the government of Ko and as well as an emissary of the Daughters to offer you a place to rest, to root, and rediscover the grandeur of life. So I ask that you do not look at me as a representative, but merely as one person with an explanatory invitation."

As the talk began, Kagome watched the reactions of the demon's representatives to Kaede's take on Ko. The red eyed woman she saw earlier was sitting in her chair with her arms crossed and a blank stare aimed at the map. There was another man there, dressed in furs of brown, black, and white and something that reminded her of a top-hat on his head, though it was tapered at the top; he would occasionally write something down in a pad of paper but seemed otherwise bored. She recognized the last one, the man she met up on the roof. He seemed just as disinclined to pay attention as the others.

Which was rather weird considering how much there was to listen to. Kaede explained how Ko was founded by someone called the Great Spirit Healer in the age of the Silver Emperor, and that Ko was originally part of the Merican Confederacy but broke away in the Great War of 440 when all of the Merican countries balkanized. Since then there were several new Merican confederacies and empires and federations but Ko never took part. It was a place that had never had civil strife - - the gentle nods of the demon's affirmed this to Kagome - - and was known for its diverse populace. "Some people," Kaede said while standing in front of a map of Ko, on the south west coast of Asigo. "Have said Ko is a country of mutts and refugees, and we are, and we wouldn't have it any other way."

She showed large pictures of the capital of Ko, Polis, which Kagome was thankful to see had normal shaped buildings. On closer inspection she noted that each building seemed like it was built in some variant of the art nouveau style, with gutters sweeping around circular towers in vine-like designs and colorful patterns worked into roofs. Kaede explained that should anyone choose to move to Ko they would be assisted in finding an apartment and work, even if that meant getting training. After she finished she took her seat quietly, though she caught Kagome's stare and smiled lightly.

The Yokai Republic was next, which the lady with red eyes represented. She introduced herself as Kagura, Ambassador of the Yokai Republic to the Demon States and Nindiyan nations. Kagome noted this and wondered if any of the countries in Beji had enough wealth to support foreign officers in all of the other countries in the world. _'Attachés and regional ambassadors… doesn't seem like even the demons are rolling in gold…'_

"The Yokai Republic, while young, is fierce and powerful," She explained in a dark voice. "We were born out of the Demonic Civil War of Succession twenty years ago, as Attachés Inuyasha or Ginta can tell you. While the Wolf Clans and Dog Clans fought over who would get to place their heir on the throne, a large group of demons and half-demons - - yes, demons and humans have been known to produce offspring - - revolted against the monarchy that has left all other kinds of demons oppressed and detracted for centuries. Unfortunately, much of the world still views us with suspicion and revulsion, even laying the entire costs of the civil war upon our country when its atrocities were committed by our regal neighbors. I ask you tonight to be wary of the words of those yet to speak; there will be words meant to deceive you amongst their sweet sounding promises."

Protests erupted out of the other representatives and several of the attending members of the staff and military. Kagome watched Kagura carefully. _'She isn't responding to any of their reactions, staying patient and relaxed while waiting for people to yield themselves to her need to continue with her presentation… she is definitely a pro…_'

Kagome looked over at Kaede, who seemed to be one of the few other people in the room who was calm. _'They are each trying to play to something that we identify with… Kaede supposed we would want to hear that there is a place where we can have a normal life, while somehow Kagura has clearly found out about how the 'aliens' have been treated here and is trying to capitalize on our feelings of anger and injustice…_

_ 'I don't care what she says, the Yokai Republic is out._' Kagome thought to herself, careful not to let her repulsed feelings show on her face.

General Selaya called on everyone to be quiet and that Kagura refrain from inflammatory speech. She replied with, "I would hardly call such realities inflammatory when they are true, but nonetheless I will curtail my words to political correctness; my apologies General."

The Yokai Republic was a small country north of North Merica and bordering Sokoku to the west, at the northeast corner of Asigo. Kagome noted that Kagura didn't say a thing about a peninsula and islands just north of Y.R. that didn't seem to be officially claimed by anyone. She felt more and more uneasy the longer the presentation went, and by the time Kagura had finished talking about the capital Sano Omi Kagome had her arms crossed and was running through multiplication tables in her head to pass the time.

The representative from Sokoku was next, and he opened with a scathing reply to Kagura's statements, which of course caused more uproar. Sokoku was the huge country that took up nearly the entire northern coast of Asigo, and was ruled by the wolf demons. The Demonic Civil War had split Sokoku from the Dog Demon's enclave in the south, which was just as huge but now landlocked. There was a lot of talk of the majesty of the wolves and the ancient cave dens and other things that made little sense to Kagome - - - she needed historical context to really understand. By the time Attaché Inuyasha stepped up to complete the presentations, Kagome was wishing she could simply go back to their room and sleep this mess away.

"I'm not here to discredit anyone," He began with his slightly scratchy voice. "And I'm not here to justify myself or the country I represent."

'_The country he represents… why not say __my country__ …?' _Kagome wondered, her attention rallied.

"I am here… to confer the official invitation to the recent arrivals to this world from King Sesshomaru to find residence in Inu no Gyokuza no Tochi, or Iguto for short. Outside of Demon Tongue, Iguto is also known as the Land of the Dog's Throne.

"I'm not going to lie, Iguto is a harsh place to live for humans," he continued. "Much of the country is covered in desert and scrag, and it is not a safe place to wander around at night without the right connections. However, the King offers immediate acceptance into the Community of Lords so you may join him and other nobility in Court." And without another word he returned to his seat.

Silence filled the room for a moment until the General approached the stage to offer some closing remarks, but Kagome paid no heed to them. She was staring at the man with white hair, crossed arms and determinately displeased look on his face. '_What in the world was__** that**__?... it was like an act of dissent, as if he had to make sure he gave this presentation for the record's sake but wouldn't want to have us go to his coun—no, wait, he didn't say it was his country. That __**was**__ an act of dissent… something major must be taking place in Iguto right now, maybe some kind of power struggle…_'

Kagome traveled quietly with her family back to their room, evading Sango's attempts to jump into analysis of the different options. Too much had happened today: The storm, learning about how much silver there was on Beji, escaping to the roof and yelling at an attaché apparently and then get manhandled by doctors, toped off with exclusionary treatment at dinner and a two hour long meeting from which she was supposed to determine the location of her future… Sleep sounded very good.

Kagome braced herself as she helped her mother get Ji-Chan into bed, and then Sota, and then it was simply her with her thoughts stubbornly keeping Kagome awake. The moons were full, giving off their violet and red light respectively into a night sky she hardly knew. Kagome rolled over and pressed her face into her pillow angrily.

She heard Paak's words in her head. '_Guard yourself against emotional and spiritual fatigue, Kagome. This is tiring, but it won't always be like this. Keep your head in the moment and flow as best as you can._'

"Easy for you to say, fox…" she muttered. After a moment she sighed and turned her head upwards so she could stare at the wall that made her headboard. "Things don't sound easy for Paak either… this isn't easy for any of us… my mind is trying to make a scapegoat out of all these things, trying to pinpoint one person or thing that I can blame all my stress on so I don't have to think about all of it so much…

"I wonder…" she whispered into her pillow, followed by a yawn. "Have I been acting callously towards the doctors and nurses here? Have I been acting ungrateful like he said?… Inuyasha, that's his name… what a weird name… "

She looked out the window next to her bed. The stars were different, and the moons were different, but there were still stars and starlight still reflected off of orbiting wonders. She thought about the bhikkuni, about her outburst, her continuous self-reminders that some basics of life were constant both here and on earth. Kagome wanted to make sense of it all, like the strange bumps in the hallways, but it felt like such a fruitless effort. Kagome rolled over onto her side and curled up with her pillow folded over, and stared at the shadowy buildings until her mind drifted away.

Kagome woke slowly, her cheeks feeling warm. When her eyes did open she saw daylight for the first time since arriving on Beji. She jumped up and onto the edge of her bed and stared outside.

"Mama…" she called to her mother. There was no sound behind her. Kagome looked over her shoulder and didn't see her mother anywhere, but did see that the small bathroom light was on. A few moments later her mother emerged, her hair freshly pinned up and her white and pale violet day clothes properly arranged.

"Mama, look! Come over here!" she called out.

"What is it Kagome, what?" Ms. Higurashi calmly stepped over to her daughter before seeing it herself. She sat down on Kagome's bed and leaned in close to look outside.

"…it's the same color blue…" Ms. Higurashi muttered with a smile. She clasped Kagome's hand in hers as they welcomed in the bright morning light and the cerulean sky, the exact same as on earth. Some cumulus clouds were forming many miles away, but from this distance they looked white and normal, just slightly bluer along their undersides than the Earth kind. Kagome reached forward and opened the window as far as it would allow, and a burst of warm, wet air whisked into the room along with sounds of morning traffic.

"It could be any morning in Kyoto…" Ms. Higurashi said softly, her voice cracking near the end. Kagome squeezed her hand harder.

"Yeah, except for the buildings," Sota added from behind them. The older Higurashi women started for a moment before letting him crawl up onto the bed with them and stare out the window too. "They look like giant teeth."

"They do look kind of dental, don't they…," Ms. Higurashi sighed with a smile. "Now all I need is a kitchen to make my own food with."

Kagome nodded slowly before leaning forward and resting her head on top of Sota's, her arm reaching out to hug her brother and mother in a one-arm embrace. Her mother reciprocated. "Hey mom… I've been thinking about the presentations we saw last night, and I think we really shouldn't go to—"

"Uhm, Kagome… I didn't understand a single thing from last night. Dear, you were supposed to help translate for us, remember?"

Kagome gawked. She _was _supposed to have translated for her family, but it completely slipped her mind. "Ah, well, uh… oops. Sorry, mama."

Her mother sighed again carefully, in the way that Kagome had learned meant she was really upset but was trying not to act on it. "Please remember that in the future, dear, I can only learn a new language so fast. But anyway, what were your impressions from—"

"OHAYO, HIGURASHI FAMILY!" Someone yelled from behind them. The three Higurashis at the window jumped, clocked heads together, and let out their own version of profanity. Kagome clutched her jaw and looked behind her at the front door, finding the woman with red eyes, Kagura, standing there with far too effervescent of a smile. Too effervescent for that early in the day, anyway.

"How are you all this morning? I hope well, because I have a treat for you!"

Ms. Higurashi rose from the bed first. "Good morning, I'm Ms. Higurashi, and you are?"

"Uh… I'm Ambassador Kagura Kikaze, from the Yokai Republic? We sort of met last night…?"

"Well yes, I recognize you, but my daughter is the only one of us that knows English, so I never learned your name."

Kagura raised an eyebrow in confusion. "…Eng-grish? What's that?"

Ms. Higurashi and Kagome explained to Kagura how demon tongue, what they were speaking in right then, was called Japanese, and that on Earth there were thousands of languages.

"Hunh… that's a weird sounding word, _lang-gwaj…_ each one is a different system of words and grammar to understand the world and converse about it… Hm. Well, Demon Tongue is called the revered tongue of the Silver Emperor who reigns over all from heaven, and here only demons and half-demons are ever allowed to learn it. Heh heh, I must admit that there are many demons who have come to think your family is either full of saviors or of angels of death."

"I assure you, we're just a normal family that's a few centuries late." Ms. Higurashi replied.

"Ms. Kikaze," Kagome began.

"Just Kagura," She replied.

"All right then, Kagura. I have a few questions for you. Firstly, what exactly is a demon? Secondly, who is this Silver Emperor person? Thirdly, what- - -"

Kagura laughed elegantly before waving her white and green fan at Kagome. "Well, don't you even want to hear about what I've gotten planned for you all today first?"

"I have studied international relations, comparative politics, and to a certain extent social psychology, and have earned a bachelor's degree in those first two. I don't know what that equates to here on Beji, but it generally means I focus on the bigger questions more than the small stuff." Kagome bit back.

Kagura raised an eyebrow before slowly closing her fan. "Aren't you the busy one… Fine then…"

Her voice warmed from its sudden coldness. "Demons are creatures most believe are far greater than humans, and they are right to think so. We rarely get sick, have greater speed and strength than the greatest athletes humans can produce, sharpened senses, and on occasion more… _gifted_ abilities. And before you ask a half demon is merely the offspring of a demon and a human; like I said last night, they are not common but not rare. In fact you've already met one: Prince Inuyasha of Iguto is a half demon."

"Prince!" The three replied. Even Ji-chan's darkened eyes flickered over to Kagura as he remained hunched over in his wheel chair.

"Yes, the attaché of Iguto is royalty. He has quite a history associated with him, but I'm sure you'll hear about that later today, as you will about the Silver Emperor. What I came here to tell you is that myself and two of my representative associates have come up with a wonderful plan for your family."

Kagome frowned as she saw her mother's back tense.

"How would all of you like to get out of this stuffy hospital for the day? There is a train line that goes all around this island, and I can only imagine how crazy you all must feel being cooped up in here for so long."

Sota cheered and Ms. Higurashi thanked Kagura for such thoughtfulness, and then helped Sota get dressed. Kagome walked over to the demoness carefully, who was dressed in a white, angular dress like the one from last night, but this one had more folds of lacy fabric tied around the waist which were varying shades of maroon and mauve.

"Which other representatives agreed to do this?" She asked.

"Inuyasha and Kaede from Ko," she replied.

"Just Inuyasha? No 'Prince' Inuyasha or anything?"

Kagura gave Kagome a deep side-long glance. "He is not my Prince, so there is no reason to refer to him as such."

Kagome nodded before putting her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face. "I can't imagine there will be any intelligence agents on this train you speak of like there are in the hospital, will there?"

Kagura whipped her head around, her face shocked. It was there for only a moment, but then she calmed. "You _are_ the busy one… how did you figure out the hospital is tapped?"

"Its something you and Inuyasha said. He told me something the President of Zaba said to his King, and last night when you were making such an effort to associate the feelings of injustice of those in the Y.R. to we 'aliens'… How could you all have known what the people here were feeling? And how could Inuyasha have known what the President said when she was calling talking with the King here at the hospital just a few days ago? It was rather obvious."

Kagura flipped her fan open and flapped herself slowly. "I'll give you this, Kagome Higurashi, you have a good head on your shoulders, but the hospital doesn't have intelligence agents here, at least not from the Yokai Republic. We had small microphones placed in strategic places around the hospital to figure out whether all of you were really from another planet or if it was some kind of hoax. Our leader is very interested in all of you."

"Yeah, I gathered that," Kagome replied, watching Sota trying to choose between a Zaban white shirt or one of the ones from Earth he salvaged from the crash. "Though I can't figure out why you guys are so interested in us… And I doubt it'll do much good to ask you outright, will it?"

"That would be correct," Kagura replied softly. "Though I will tell you this much - - I don't know who here is gathering intelligence for any of the other countries involved in this and who isn't. A lot of people - - just people, not demons - - think that you people can teach them how to make advanced technology to get an upper hand on the rest of us. Inuyasha, Kaede and I agreed that we should each talk to your family privately and away from prying ears: Sokoku has been too anxious to start another war with Iguto to indicate that their intentions are sweetly altruistic, and there are many, _many_ more countries around the world interested in how you were able to make a ship that flies. And even though King Sesshomaru may be interested in power grabs, his half brother isn't."

Kagome nodded. "Thank you for such honesty, Kagura. I might as well be honest as well… right now, I seem to be the person who is making decisions for my family, and I am much more inclined to live in a place like Ko than I am in a place where I know everyone around me could kill me when trying to give me a high five."

"I don't… what is a 'high five'?" Kagura replied. Kagome sighed and shook her head.

Kagura gave no other reaction to what Kagome said, which made the earthling rather nervous. '_She seemed so passionate and direct during the presentation last night… maybe I've misjudged her personality, but I doubt it…'_

Kagura slipped out the door of their room with Ms. Higurashi first, and a few minutes later Kaede arrived to transport Sota; she was still dressed as a miko. Kagome waited quietly after she changed into her Zaban clothes. She sat in a chair at the table, head resting in her propped up arm.

"Are you going to come too Grandpa?" She asked. The senior Mr. Higurashi didn't look up at her. His head remained turned towards his toes, his arms folded softly into either sleeve of his white haori. Kagome sighed.

There was one knock on the door before it slid open. The half-demon, half-brother prince named Inuyasha poked his head in the room, which was covered by a beige hat similar to the red one he wore the day before. "You ready to go?" He asked her.

Kagome glanced over at her grandfather before nodding once, standing, and walking over to the door.

"Young man," she heard behind her. Kagome whirled around to see her grandfather looking up at her… no, not at her, beyond her, at Inuyasha. "This trip you people have planned is reckless and moronic. Make sure the nurses send food later on so I can report it."

"Wha- Grandpa!" Kagome protested. "If that's your opinion, then that's your opinion, but don't talk to him like that, he doesn't work here!"

He didn't shift his gaze, though he did sneer.

"Let's just go," Kagome hissed, grabbing Inuyasha's sleeve and pulling him out the room. Once in the hallway she slammed the door and looked up at him expectantly. "Lead on, captor."

Inuyasha started walking down the hall. "What's his problem?"

Kagome rubbed her temple as she followed along side him. "It's… I really have no idea. He's never been like this before… only when he found out his son died thousands of years ago did he start acting like this."

"A father's pride for his son, eh?..." Inuyasha replied dryly. Kagome frowned and raised one of her eyebrows at him, but he didn't seem to want to continue the conversation. Her shoulders slumped and arms crossed. _'…what is it with men and long silences…?'_

"Now what's you're problem?" She heard Inuyasha sour. She looked back up at him: he looked irritated.

'_How about I give you a long silence and see how you like it?...' _she thought, but she rolled her eyes dejectedly. "I was just thinking about the craziness that keeps going on with the men I find in my life right now. We're going to have to dodge around the nurses up here."

"Nope, they think you and me are discussing future relocation plans while walking around. They won't realize anything's up till we're gone."

"Keep talking about it so loudly and I think they'll catch on sooner," Kagome chided. He let out an annoying sounding puff of air as they passed the nurse's station. Kagome recognized Twitchy there, who was eyeing her suspiciously, but they were allowed to walk by unmolested.

"What, are you PMSing?" Inuyasha hissed at her as they walked into the next hallway.

"That figures - - PMSing stays in your guys' language but high five doesn't," Kagome replied, but the sentence made her smile and breath deeper. "I guess I could have warned you about the proximity of the nurses a little softer. Sorry."

"I—wha?"

Kagome looked up at him curiously. "Sorry," She repeated. "I could have said that better than I did."

Inuyasha nodded slowly. He flashed his satchel of folded black leather in front of the stairway door, opened it and held it open for her after a moment of hesitation. He started walking down the stairs instead of up. "You're really weird."

Kagome frowned at him for a second before chuckling. "And you are very blunt and sudden!... So why am I weird?"

"You got pissed and then apologized," He said. Kagome had to run down the stairs to keep up with him.

"What's so weird about that? I got irritated and lashed out, which I shouldn't have done. So I apologize – that's normal - - and could you slow down a bit, dog-boy?"

"**Don't** call me dog boy," he called back at her impudently.

"That's just going to make me want to call you that even more! And seriously slow down, I'm just a humble human back here!"

Inuyasha stopped so abruptly Kagome slammed right into his back. She stumbled and fell onto one of the steps. "Uff! Ow… okay, maybe not _that_ slow…"

"Hey, I have my normal speed and I have stop, those are my two speeds."

"Not true…" Kagome said, picking herself up and catching a quick glance at him. For a moment she thought she saw some boyish emotion there, but it soon hardened.

"Last night, when you were giving the presentation, you walked up to the podium smoothly," she said, hobbling over to the stair rail and moving on down the stairs.

She heard him let out another agitated breath. "Well aren't you the **critical **one."

"Not critical, analytical, though it involves critical thinking, so in a way you're right." Kagome replied.

Another irritated sigh. "You are weird, **analytical**, and annoying."

"And I wouldn't have it any other way," Kagome chipped back. A part of her felt slightly bad about finding so much glee in upsetting someone else, but she felt it was more his interpretation of the world that was causing those feelings than her actual actions. "What were we talking about before?... Ah, grandpa and men and things."

Inuyasha caught up with her. "So now you have a thing against Zabans and men. I'll add judgmental onto that list of descriptive adjectives."

"No, not against all men - - hey, you're speeding up ag- you know, never mind, I'll catch up."

With that Inuyasha hurtled down the rest of the stairs as a blur. Kagome stared for a moment, then pursed her lips and stepped down the steps in pursuit. "Okay… so Kagura wasn't kidding about demons and half-demons, was she?"

"Keh," was all she heard from beneath her. She smiled and rolled her eyes.

"So are you going to tell me why you decided not to do your job last night?"

"What are you yammering about?" She heard from below. "I _did_ do my job, I presented my case for you aliens—for you _people_ to go to Iguto."

"But you didn't refer to Iguto as _your_ country, and just now you said that you were trying to convince people to _go to_ Iguto as opposed to _come to_ Iguto."

"Ugh, you're being annoying again! And does it really matter whether I say one thing or another, jeez…"

'_Hunh, they have jeez and PMS but no high five - - meh, I'll think about that later_.'

"Yes it does matter!" Kagome replied, stepping down to the last landing before the bottom of the steps. Inuyasha, dressed in a similar attire as yesterday but in hues of white, brown, and sapphire instead, leaned against one of the cement walls with his arms crossed. "It is called post-structuralist theory - - watch out!"

Kagome jumped onto the railing and slid down, guiding her speed with her hands as breaks. She flew a little bit farther than she expected and Inuyasha broke her fall with his hands, looking utterly annoyed. "Whew, thanks! Post-Structuralist theory states that the way we phrase our sentences changes the meaning and implications of our statements. I know that sounds pretty obvious from a language perspective, but in terms of International Relations it is a relatively revolutionary concept, or, eh, it was when I was studying things. It's pretty handy when interpreting official statements and speeches, but not the best predictor of policy or of a state's interests. Shall we go out?"

Inuyasha stared at her for a moment. "Weird, analytical, annoying, and a nerd."

Kagome glared at him halfheartedly as he led the way outside.

A large, white, car thing waited for them outside and swept the Higurashi family and the representatives away from the hospital. After she got over the fact that the car had three wheels instead of four and was not going to fall apart and kill them all, Kagome let herself settle into her seat, and then look out her window. Prialata's toothy style of building applied everywhere - - from the tall buildings towards the city center to the individual houses and mansions up in the hills, and there seemed to be jungle foliage everywhere. Considering how close Prialata was to Beji's equator, Kagome wasn't all that surprised, though she was startled by the plants' design: most of the leaves were yellow and orange, though on occasion she saw the silver of something green or blue farther off. Most of the palm trees she saw weren't really palm trees either: when stopped at an intersection Kagome saw that the trunk was more metallic looking than woody, and a second, smaller tuft of sharp, reddish leaves were growing out from the middle of it. '_Somehow I'm not convinced that I'm the weirdest thing around here…_' she thought as they got the blue "Go" signal and drove on.

The train station was the same gray concrete as all of the other buildings, but for some reason it was rectangular. Kagome was so busy gawking at it that she nearly walked right by Sango.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" Kagome started.

"Same reason you are, I think. I was asked to come out here for a more private place to discuss our arrangements."

"Yeah, that sound's right," Kagome said, eyeing Inuyasha and Kagura as they stepped out of the car. "Though this entire thing seems… no, never mind. Where is the rest of your crew?"

"Ah, uh, they didn't get the invite, " Sango replied with a wince. "Its strange though. Though I'm out here they _were_ invited by the Zaban military to review their barracks and technology. It's kind of funny considering we're part of the air-force, not the army, but at the same time its unnerving how they keep singling me out."

Kagome nodded. She wanted to tell Sango about Kagura's hint, that some countries were looking to them to get an edge over others, but there were too many ears and eyes about. The two of them boarded the train with their prepaid tickets, found seats in a car that was far too conveniently vacant for them, and in a few moments the train engine screamed into moving life.

Sango and Kagome sat next to each other on a wooden bench that seemed in great need of repair. Kagura beelined to Ms. Higurashi, completely passing Kagome and Sango by in the process. Kagome recalled the ambassador's lack of response when she was informed of Kagome's initial leanings. '_Can't get the daughter so go to the mother… I wish you luck, ambassador, cause that's what you're going to need.'_

Inuyasha sat in a far corner of the car, scowling out the window. After some whispered discussion Sango set out to speak with him while Kagome tripped her way over to Kaede, who had just sent Sota to rejoin his mother.

"Ah, hello there, I don't believe I know your name," Kaede said after a simple, smiling nod.

Kagome smiled back. "My name is Kagome Higurashi, pleased to make your akuwei… no, hold on, I always mess this word up… ak… ac-que-acquai-tance. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Take a seat, child," Kaede said softly. Kagome did so as the train thundered and rumbled beneath them, foliage rushing by the open windows.

"So how have you adjusted to Prialata so far?" the old woman asked.

"Well enough as anyone can, I suppose." Kagome replied kindly. Kaede raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "Well… things could be going better, but that's how life always is, isn't it?"

Kaede smiled, wrinkles forming along her eyes and mouth. "Indeed."

It was silent between the two of them for a few moments.

"So…" Kagome began, hoping to break the ice. "You said last night that you are part of the daughters of… something…?"

"Yes, that is right, I am a Daughter of the Mothers. Have you been introduced to the different religions in the world?"

Kagome shook her head. "I've read a bit about some of them, but its hard to get theological books out of a hospital."

"Yes, I figured as such. There are three main groups of the faithful on Beji, and they are known as the Adherents to the Mothers, the Emprists, and Singularists, though the term Singularist is not one most of those people would use to refer to themselves. I will explain them first.

"There are many people on Beji who believe that there is only one God and there can be no others, and that there is a singular way to worship him. However, most of these people disagree with each other about the nature of this God and even his name! Their practices differ too. On the continent Nindiya there are some people known as Musas who believe that the sun is God and his name Meka. Others on the same continent, even in the same country, disagree, believing God, whose name is Adonai, lives in the clouds and that storms are his judgment. And there are many others still. Since they believe in a single God, they are referred to as Singularists, but each of them would probably ask their God to strike you down for referring to them in that way.

"The Emprists are the next group, and are very old, and also tend to either be demons or are somehow connected to demons," Kaede continued.

"Does this have something to do with the Silver Emperor?" Kagome asked.

"Yes it does, very good. Emprists use the Code of the Silver Emperor to dictate how they live their lives. In case you haven't learned this yet, the Silver Emperor is something of a legendary character in the world's history. All peoples everywhere have some reference to him and his rule over the planet, but most references to him have changed so much over time that only a scholar would realize each peoples' historical figure is the same."

"And what did the Silver Emperor teach?" Kagome asked.

"According to legend he was the one who taught people the Clarence to keep their souls pure. I don't know all of the details, as it is a demonic religion and I, being human, do not earn any privilege to read the holy book or visit its holy sites. However, I know that there is a strict hierarchy amongst Emprists, where Demons are on the top, then half-demons, then humans, and finally the Kwis, but there are more hierarchies within each of those groups."

Kagome blinked at her. "Uhm… what's a kwist?"

"The word is kwis - - I can't believe no one has told you this yet, its such a regular issue it seems," Kaede lagged for a moment. "It is hard to say what the kwis are exactly - - for a large part of history their existence wasn't recorded, and once it was recorded it involved people mentioning them only so that others would stay away from their territory. From the pictures I've seen they appear to be some form of human, but their skin is blue and they possess no form of communication, and further more they don't tend to let visitors leave with their heads."

Nightmares of zombies flooded into Kagome's mind. "Uhm… okay… and where do they live?"

"North of the Yokai Republic. They have been a major issue lately, particular between the wolf demons of Sokoku and the Y.R. as the land they live on is bountiful in food and natural resources, and both countries want to stake a claim there, but the Kwis..."

"Tend to tear them to shreds," Kagome finished. Kaede nodded slowly.

"Yes… in fact the Kwis were involved in the Demon's Civil War a few decades back, and as I understand it were one of the catalyzing factors to the Kingdom's break up. But that is another story.

"And now, finally, the Daughters of the Mothers," Kaede said. She coughed a few times to clear her throat, raising her hand when Kagome moved to inquire if she was okay.

"Some say that the way of the Daughters is more of a philosophy than a religion, but it is not a clear case on either side of that debate. The way that I see the world is through my house, so to speak. You see, in this world we have four elements: Fire, Earth, Air, and Water. While there are chemical elements and one can claim those are the only true elements, that completely misses the reality of these other elements. Fire is a representation of the heart, passions, energy and light. We need these things in our lives, as do all things, in the same way we need our mothers when we are young. Earth represents the physical world, the ground, physical force, perseverance and level-headedness, which are also things we all need in order to exist. Air represents our faith in life, as well as the invisible, ineffable laws that determine how life and the universe work and determine how it will proceed. Obviously, without these laws life itself would not exist."

"You don't mean the law of gravity, do you?" Kagome replied with a smile.

It was Kaede's turn to blink. "So you know Gutierrez's Law of gravity?"

"We called it Newton's law, but yes. And the kind of law you are talking about… I think you mean the flow of life itself, which when we try to explain or even think of words to explain we fail. As one person once said, the Way that can be told is not the eternal Way; the Way that can be named is not the eternal Way."

Kaede paled as she flabbergasted. "How do ye know this!"

"…Did you just say 'ye'?"

"I did? I lost myself…" Kaede pulled herself back from her seat and breathed deeply. "There is a way one must speak around the Compound, and there is a way to speak when outside of the compound. You excited me so, I forgot myself. Though if you would please explain…"

Kagome smiled and stared out the window for a moment. "The idea of Air for you is very similar to something called Taoism on my home planet… wow it sounds weird to say that out loud… but when I was younger I studied Taoism, amongst other traditions, and some of those teachings have stuck with me through the years. Though, the things you attribute to Air were attributed to water and wood, but I'm not particular devout to that one way of thinking."

"If this is sooth- - forgive me. If this is true then it seems the way of the Mothers is very old indeed."

"No kidding. Though you still had to explain water, and what it meant to be a Daughter with a capital D."

"Ah yes, you are right," Kaede cleared her throat again. " Water represents the mind and logical thought. Just as we need the quenching sustenance of water, we need to be able to see our world through more than just the lenses of our whims, our passions or our physical needs. We must be able to converse and consider the positives and negatives in our lives and in our futures; water is essential to maintaining true equilibrium, as all adherents to the mother seek. Though water alone is not always pure - - just as one must perform the Clarence to clean what we drink, one must also distill one's thoughts with evidence from our physical and spiritual sides and do not let it overwhelm ourselves, lest it extinguish our light."

Though Kagome went on to ask Kaede more about Ko and Polis, from that moment she knew that even if Paak hadn't warned her to stay away from the demons that she still would have chosen this human nation to look forward to. The country was about the same size as the five other Merican nations, but unlike any of the others it was a federal republic with a twist: though politicians were allowed to run for local, regional, and parliamentary offices, they were not allowed to run for the position of Athena, the equivalent of a Prime Minister. Only people with a doctorate degree could become the Athena, and those people could not have served as an educational professor for several years before hand. The more Kagome heard about the country the more she wondered if it had been initially established by psychologists and sociologists.

"Polis is nothing like Prialata," Kaede continued as Kagome and Sango asked more questions. Inuyasha was once again on his own in the back of the car, though Kagome did note that one of his dog-ears always stayed perked towards their conversation. "It is deep within the country, in the Appach Plateau, and formed when people settled around a lake which three large rivers flow into and one flows out of. Each district has competitions to see which one can produce the most beautiful buildings, festivals, food, and so on, though I will admit… Ko is a country known for its willingness to accept refugees, and there are some parts of Polis where crime is a particular issue. It is far better now than twenty years ago during the war… demons and half demons fled the demonic nations and some settled around Polis, but they wound up bringing the war with them. The 35th Athena instituted the Eighty-Eighth Long and Short Term Plan for Amelioration, Integration, and Preservation, so violent crime is not an issue, but there are some hold-ups and protests that get out of hand.

"I tell you these things only to warn you. While I have lived in and loved Polis for my whole life, I know it is no paradise, just a place where making a home isn't very hard." Kaede finished.

When the train jerked to a stop Kagome noticed for the first time that it was nearly dark outside. The moment the cabin car door opened Kagura slammed her hands against the bench she was sitting on and almost flew out of the car. Kagome looked over to her mother, who gave her a wry smile.

"Your father was a pro and she is a novice," was her only explanation. Kagome smiled in response and helped Kaede out of her seat. She was about to assume that Inuyasha made a similarly hasty escape when she noticed he was holding the door open for everyone at the front of the car. Granted, he scowled while holding the door but he still held it.

Sango secured her military transport back to the hospital while the others waited for the white car to show up. Kagome and Sota passed the time by chasing lightning bugs until they caught some and discovered that they had tended to bite people on this planet. "Every rosa has its thorn, every bug has its bite!" Kaede called out to them.

The car arrived just as the red tinged clouds started to drizzle. While outside and near the honey colored forests Kagome felt her spirit lay stretch its overtaxed muscles, but driving back into the city replaced the invisible yoke to Kagome's shoulders. By the time they arrived at the front of the hospital, Kagome wanted to drawl under the seats and hide instead of face the hoard of angry looking military, hospital, and government officials. Instead she braced herself and opened the door.

There were two shouts that she didn't catch, but after a moment she was yanked out of the car and a handcuff was slapped onto one of her wrists. She caught 'stupid little bitch' from someone's lips, but couldn't figure out from where - - she was dragged into the crowd as a symphony of roars and shots commenced near the car.

"THEY WERE UNDER OUR PROTECTION AND THIS WAS-"

"-YOU HANDCUFF HER?" She recognized Kaede's voice.

"IE, KAGOME, SOTA!" her mother.

"YOU BASTARD, IT WAS OUR IDEA, NOT HERS!" Inuyasha.

"SHE'S BEEN CAUSING NOTHING BUT TROUBLE SINCE WE'VE—"

"WHAT THE CRAP, THIS IS INSANE!" that one sounded like Hazel.

"PUT THEM IN CONTAINMENT ROOM, GET THE BOY, GET THE BOY!"

"ANATA WA ON—" Her mother was screaming now.

"WHAT MAKES THOSE JAPS THINK THEY'RE ANY BETTER THAN-"

"WHOA, THOSE JAPS? SAY THAT TO MY FUCKING FACE, PRIVATE!" she heard Sango. Her hair caught on someone's belt; Kagome screamed as loud as she could, but it no use, the person with the belt move and yanked some of her hair out. Her free hand struggled to clasp her head, but there were people in the way.

"THAT'S IT!" she heard Kagura yell. Kagome flew forward and crumbled into someone else's body as a gale blasted them all into the doors and walls of the hospital. Kagome pushed and kicked until the person on top of her mouth moved, and she yanked her hand free from the person holding her handcuff.

She caught sight of Kagura's open fan blasting a tempest as the few remaining officers on their feet, save one. Inuysha held his arms out in front of Kaede and Kagome's mother, both plastered to the car, as Kagura lifted her fan at General Selaya, who seemed to have just grabbed and twisted Sota's arm.

"Let go of the boy you presumptuous little human."

Kagura's fan was directed straight at Selaya's face. Sota was still struggling and whimpering, "One-chan, kudasai!"

Selaya's face tensed and he slapped a hand-cuff onto Sota's arm. Sota suddenly dropped to the ground as Kagura slammed Selaya into the wall of the hospital, her finger nails shoved into the cement like nails.

"Oh ho ho, now we get to have the _fun_ kind of diplomacy, now don't we? Let me go over the rules: you do what I say and I won't blow you into the bay. If you don't follow this cardinal rule, heh, well, I think you understand how this goes.

"Now you see that white haired half-demon over there? Go ahead, look at him, yes, long and hard. This entire plan was his idea, not that girl's. So why would you do something so stupid as punish her for something she didn't do?"

Selaya swallowed audibly. "She and her family—"

"DID I SAY YOU COULD SPEAK YOU WORM!" Kagura sent a blast of wind at the military taxi parked in front of the white car; it rolled like tumbleweed into the front of a store down on the farther side of the road. She looked back to her captee. "_Now_ you may speak. Remember my rules."

"You have no authority to hold me or my mine thusly, you will be expelled from-!"

She threw her head back and laughed. "No _authority_! Hear that Inuyasha, he thinks there is something higher than us. Try _DIVINE_ authority you little insect."

"Kagura, cut it out," Inuyasha called back. He had already moved Kaede and Ms. Higurashi over to the opposite side of the front entrance. Kagome didn't have to look behind her to know that the pounding on the door were medical staff trying to push them open amongst the masses of people.

"Oh no, Inuyasha, I don't think so. When someone acts to _vilely_ out of place they need to be reminded of the order, now don't they Selaya? That's how it works in the barracks, doesn't it? If a lieutenant speaks out against a colonel, that's insubordination, and has heavy punishment.

"But as I just said, Inuyasha, and myself in collusion, decided to take these people out to see this despicable little rock you call a capital. Its no wonder they can't stand it here, really. Now, according to the _higher_ authority, Inuyasha's way goes here, and mine goes above his as I am a Demon. Your authority? Your petty little human's authority? Oh no, Selaya, any insistence that you have authority over him or me is simply _insubordination._ I wonder… how should we punish him, Inuyasha?"

"I said that's **enough** Kagura!" He yelled back.

Kagura ignored him. "Take another look at him, Selaya. Yes, he is a hanyou, and nothing compared to me, but even so he could destroy this entire hospital in the blink of an eye. I could destroy it before you could even contemplate the idea of destroying the building, but really, is that so much of a difference?"

Several officers, administrators and nurses had picked themselves up were heading to rush Kagura. With a flick of her fan a gust tripped them all and planted their faces into the ground.

"Hah hah hah hah! Oh, go ahead little man, puff out your chest, sharpen your nails pretty lady, come at me, see if you can make it! After all you have your _honor_ as _men _to uphold. After all you have to show me which woman runs this place. How beautifully _hilarious."_

Kagura grabbed the General's puffy neck and tossed him to the ground with the others, of which many immediately tried to help him up. As they did she opened her fan swiftly - - the whole crowed winced and jumped - - and gently fanned herself.

"Tell me, Selaya, how many big men do you think I've ripped up? Madame head nurse, how many pretty nails do you think I've torn out of pretty hands? Why don't you guess how many livers do you think I've bitten into while its owner's heart was still beating?"

Kaede coughed, but there was little other sound. Kagome's eyes flashed to Sango and Hazel's, then to Sota, her mother, Inuyasha…

"Oh no? No one will hazard a guess? Come now… how about you, _General_, " She said the title with contempt and piped a small laugh, as if it were a joke. " Go ahead, guess. How many of your men specifically do you think I've taken down? Well, this last time is was castration: those fishing boat skirmishes up in the north were dragging on, weren't they?"

"Kagura, give it a rest, this-"

"Silence, half-breed!" Kagome yelled back. "Now General, give me a number? Come, it's just a number. What's so hard about that?"

The large man shivered, gritting his teeth. "You're a whore filled with lies!"

Kagura stared at him for a moment before rolling her eyes. "Me? A whore? I hardly think _you_ are the one to call me any names General, especially with your track record, last I heard. What is it, _three_ mistresses? Now let's try this again… how many of your men do you think I've taken the balls off of?"

He shuddered and his face reddened. "…Twenty…"

Kagura threw her head back and laughed, piercing the evening drizzle. "Oh heavens no, not _that_ many. As I said, _I'm_ not a whore. Just one, actually. He was the commanding officer of the ship, the warrior class Habana, code number zero-one-eight. I don't remember his name, but I remember he had a hairy chest, a foul attitude, and screamed like a small bird caught in the claws of a cat.

"Now, why don't you step over there to the side like you're supposed to, and these humans and I will walk through these doors like we are supposed to… yes, just like that. Now, was that really so hard?" Kagura smiled at him toothily, so much so as to show her elongated canines. In a moment her smile vanished, her fan closed, and she slapped his cheek with it. The General tried to stand unmoving, but after a moment he bowed his head and gasped in agony. Without another word she walked gracefully into the main entrance of the building, Inuyasha and Kaede hot on her trail.

Kagome hesitated a moment. She waited until the General looked at her, and then she looked down, back at Kagura, and then him.

"Get out of here!" He hissed at her, and Kagome and her entourage zoomed into the hospital.

Kagome didn't like how she did that, how she just played the general and the other officers with the false hesitation. Truthfully she wasn't that terrified of Kagura - - like Ms. Higurashi said Kagura was like the low-calorie version of her father. Kagura went for emotional and physical fear, but that was it, nothing more; Kagome knew that was merciful compared to mental fear, when her father would twist her words, her own memories and values against her to make it look like she was the one doing things wrong.

Kagome looked down at her fists – her nails were starting to hurt against her palms. Kagome shook her hands out, looked over to her brother, and slipped his hand into hers. She felt him squeeze and not let go as their handcuffs clinked against each other.

_Am I like dad…?_ She wondered. She knew that she showed fear and hesitation around the other officers so they would know that she did not agree with Kagura and did not feel comfortable with her either. It was a measure to spray a burning bridge with water, so to speak.

But it was fake… sort of. _I don't agree with Kagura and I don't like her… so that much is true… I just wanted those people back there to stop acting so high-and-mighty over my family and me…_ _Yes, Kagura's way was effective and efficient, but it just made those people all the more resentful towards her and her country. The long-term consequences are far worse than the short-term gains she made by treating them cruelly…_

The ambassador and attachés snarled at each other as they left the main entrance for the chronic care ward of the hospital and the stairs. Kagome closed her eyes and used her free hand to rub them and her furrowed brow. She just wanted this craziness to end soon. She felt someone rub her shoulder, just where her muscles were starting to lock up. No need to look to know it was her mother. "Mama," Kagome started in Japanese. "This place is crazy. It's worse than my study abroad in Korea."

"…We'll figure this out." Ms. Higurashi replied quietly. "We just need to find a place where you and I can settle and find work, and we'll be okay."

"I vote the human country."

"That's what I was thinking too," Ms. Higurashi replied.

Sango's shoulders slumped as she stood in the Higurashi's doorway, the remains of another week's typhoons collapsing in the outside evening window. "… In the military… well, some people join the military because they want to protect the people they love, the ideas of their country, and so on… other people join because they don't have much other option economically. And there are some people who join the military and, having never found anything else in their lives that brought them into a community like that, turn their entire lives around to revolve around the military life. A lot of the people I've known and trained with are like that… we never really got along, since we never really saw eye-to-eye on all of these things, but they found themselves in the military. Hanging out with the Zaban military has been nice, its made the transition easier, but… I don't want my life to be defined by active service. "

"So they're all going to stay and join the Zaban military, everyone from the shuttle?" Ms. Higurashi asked.

"No, not me, and Hazel isn't going to either I think, but the General gave him until night's end to reconsider. He and I… we want to go with your family, Ms. Higurashi. You all are the closest thing I have to a family anymore… though, um… where exactly _are_ you guys going to?"

Kagome and Ms. Higurashi looked at each other firmly before turning back to Sango. "We are going to go to Ko. We decided back on Monday."

"So, it's off to Polis is it?" Sango asked, stepping forward and taking a seat at the small table.

"Yes," Ms. Higurashi replied. "We-"

"WHAT?" Sota cried. "I wanna go to the desert place! It sounds so cool, and Inuyasha is really cool too! Please Mama, please I wanna go there!"

Kagome raised an eyebrow playfully. "Do you want to be eaten alive Sota?"

Sota looked at his sister curiously, but with a brow slowly buckling in worry. "…no…?"

"Then I don't suggest going to Iguto - - eh, the desert place."

"Inuyasha wouldn't eat us, he's nice and cool sis, and you like him too!"

All eyes flashed to Kagome. "Wh-what? The hell I - - oh, sorry mama - - I don't! He's crude and selfish and spoiled and for all we know he might be out snack-hunting for his royal highness!... Well, that was kind of harsh, but still… he and I don't exactly find each other's company all hunky-dory."

Sota pouted, but their mother called him over to him for consoling. Sango waited patiently for the eight-year old's protests to stop, but after a minute of sharing knowing glances with Kagome she walked over to her and sat down at the window. "So… we're going to Polis then… that place looked pretty run-down from the pictures."

"It may look run-down, but so what is if it is? It sounds like the kindest place of the lot, and pictures don't tell the whole story. Taipei looked pretty run-down whenever I went there, but it was always wonderful being there."

"When were you in Taipei?"

"When I was a lot younger. My grandmother and grandfather decided that they both wanted to join monasteries in their old age, and so my grandpa stayed in Japan while his wife went back to her home in Taiwan. We visited a few times each year until I was six – she died that year."

Sango stared at her, nodding slowly. Having given that look to far too many people in her life, Kagome laughed and rolled her eyes. "You're thinking something Sango."

"Yeah, well… Sorry, but the Japanese are kinda well known for being arrogant xenophobes, especially about places they have bad history in, like Korea and Taiwan. I mean, when my father brought me back to Sapporo when I was a kid my own grandmother wouldn't talk to me because I wasn't 'really Japanese' or something. It's… it's just I was…"

Kagome sighed. "My dad tried to instill me with those ideas when I was a kid, but my mother beat him at that battle. And the monks and nuns I've known, of the Buddhist, Taoist, Shinto, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, and a lot of other faiths… how was I going to say that? Oh, right - - all of those people taught me how different people can help each other see the world in new ways and bring each other to a purer vision of life. Taiwan was just like Japan: you'd have jerks and you'd have saints but most of the time you just had a lot of people who had their own thing going on and could easily do any human thing I could. Same thing in Korea, but… the Japanese and the Koreans both have race issues… or, well, they did anyway."

Sango nodded, "It was kind of like that in the U.S.A. too. The North and the South both liked to say they had gotten over race related issues from the civil war, but neither one really did when we left. Florida wasn't that bad, but there were other places, like in Mississippi and Southern California, where people would just stare at me, or my black friends. This one time when I was in the LA airport this little girl came up to me and tried practicing the Chinese she'd been learning in school with me, but…" The two laughed. "Yeah! I'm Japanese, not Chinese, and she was so confused… it was really cute but also… really sad…"

Kagome looked out the window, laying her arms down and resting her hand on them. The storm's rain hadn't yet stopped, but the street-lights illuminated the violet trapezium buildings dramatically, each one a lone, lit match glowing fluorescent beige. "How did racism and discrimination even come about? I mean, I studied that in my world history classes, but it was so vague… A fox doesn't think it is inherently better than a rabbit and therefore eats it. The fox sees the rabbit and thinks, 'food!' and goes after it. It doesn't make a hierarchy out of things."

"How do we know what the fox and rabbit are thinking?" Sango replied sagely.

Kagome pursed her lips with a slight smile, "I have an in with some foxes."

Sango smiled and looked outside the window too. "I don't know… it seems really stupid though. It's a hierarchy where there isn't supposed to be one… and to think racism made its way here too."

Kagome nodded, thinking about all the examples of discrimination she'd seen: Doctors towards nurses, Kagura towards Inuyasha and then the General, Inuyasha towards her, even between that Caucasian private and his Japanese-American officer or between men and women… she shook her head, trying to stop thinking.

"We should ask that professor about that," Kagome started to say until—

"You bring up that lecher again and I'm throwing you out the window."  
"Okay, okay!" Kagome chuckled back. She turned her gaze back to the strange city of Prialata, filled with beheaded, artificial mountains of buildings. But there was something romantic about it. People walked along the sidewalks holding their umbrellas… which Kagome stared at intently. It just struck her that almost everything in Prialata was the same amongst people: the clothes, the buildings, the hair-styles: but the umbrellas were different. Some were white, some were red, some where tall, others wide…

She smiled. _'I wonder… if the communist ideas of Cuba were passed along to here too. Even so, some uniqueness crept in, didn't it?'_

Light sparkled along the wet roads, and each dark streak on the rain-stained buildings glittered as well, the product of year's worth of silver falling from the clouds and grinding into the walls. Kagome let her head tilt and rest on the inner side of the windowsill, blinking her sleepy eyes.

"This place is weird, but romantic," she muttered.

* * *

(…whew!... Just to let everyone know, I am now going to update my profile regularly to let you know how far along I am in the next chapter!)


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Inuyasha sat in his bed, documents strewn across the covers and his hand over his face. As the dirigible's engines whirred outside in the wind, he picked up his latest telegram and held it to his face. He could still pick out a few of the phrases despite how close they were to his eyes:

_ …King knows of your failure…_

_ …not allowed to return without the girl and family…_

_ …your request for more information denied…_

He sighed, and the telegram flew up away from his face and drifted down somewhere next to the bed.

"Damn bastard…" he whispered.

* * *

Kagome sat at a small table that was bolted to the floor. Her head rested in her palm, and her elbow on the tabletop while her eyes glared out the window.

Once again, she had to spend her time waiting for door to open to let her out into the world. '_Is that all I ever do? In elementary school they kept us inside all the time for classes until it was time to go home, then we HAD to go home until we HAD to go to school, and it was the same thing in secondary school and high school and college and the shuttle here and the hospital and now this stupid dirigible…'_

She looked down at the coffee stained napkin beneath her hand and pen. She read the lines written there again:

_Prialata to Sjevernasud, capital of Prustinjadom ~ 44 hours by 'loon_

_ Sjervernasud to Dulas, capital of Texa Merica ~ 9 hours by 'loon_

_ Dulas to Polis, capital of Ko ~ 11 hours by train_

After stealing one of Sota's school books on geometry Kagome had figured that the distance from Dulas to Polis was about the distance as Madrid to Paris, or from Kagoshima to Hakodate - - wait a second…

"Hey Sango!" Kagome called. Sango looked over to her from a few tables away, her high ponytail flipping all the way around and smacking her in the face. After spitting hair out of her mouth she stood up and walked over to Kagome, dressed in what was apparently the simple, Merican fashion: bog green pants, a loose, sleeveless white shirt, and red canvas shoes.

"What is it?"

"I think I have another connection to Earth. What if Polis is a corruption of Paris?"

Sango twisted her lips. "Maybe, but Polis has its own history as a word in and of itself."

Kagome tilted her head. "It does?"

"Yes, it was the name of the city center in Greek city-states during the Axial age… you know, the time period when Socrates and Siddhartha Gautama and Confucius lived. I've been looking over maps of the country, and—"

"What! You got maps! I've been trying for ages, how'd you—wait, let me guess, military connections?"

"Military connections," Sango replied with a smirk. "Here, come back to my room, I'll show you."

Kagome rose to her feet and jogged behind Sango through the starboard lounge and down the nearby hall, going up the steps to the third floor where the passenger rooms were. Several passengers gawked and protested at their pushiness, but the girls didn't seem to notice.

Sango pushed open the door to her room and screamed when Kagome ran in to her. Kagome bounced back into the hall and stared at Sango as the scream continued, reached its high-pitched apex, and died with her friend's breath.

"What… in the world; Sango, are you okay?"

Her back was still facing Kagome, but she slowly turned, pointing to her bed with a face full of fury and indignation. Kagome peered around her friend and saw and equally surprised looking Professor Miroku looking back them, book in hand.

Kagome promptly yelped. She then smiled.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE GET OUT GET OUT OH MY GOD YOU STUPID BELIGERENT INSIPID LECHER GET OUT OF MY ROOOOOOM!"

Kagome ducked out of the way as the professor found himself flung into the hallway and slammed into the railing.

"Sango, careful! You could have thrown him down two stories! Are you okay professor…"

Miroku looked up at Kagome from where he handed, green and pained in the face. He turned his head to face downward and emitted what was once his breakfast down onto unsuspecting passersby and the starboard lounge. Kagome hurried over to him and started rubbing his back to ease the vomiting.

"Oh no, Sango, what were you thinking, you can't just—just…" Kagome's skin crawled as she felt the professors hand firmly clasp around her sundress and find the contours of her hips. "What—you, you, you…"

Kagome elbowed the professor in the back of the skull. He yelped and clasped his injured spot, not that they could hear very much of what was coming from his mouth: the cries of revulsion from below were overpowering.

"You know professor, I was on your side in this, but then you had to go and do _that_…"

"Wait, you _KNEW_ he was going to be in there!" Sango roared. With enraged speed she rushed over to Kagome like a lioness from the darkest, most fiery crag of hell.

"No no! I meant him just trying to contact you! I used one of the letters from him you were throwing away to send him a letter – and let me tell you, getting that letter out with all the medical staff on high alert was not easy – and I found out that while he's from New Noto he actually works at a college in Aplorchard, the city right next to Polis! He was taking this trip back to Ko anyway, and I mentioned that we all could meet up, that's all! Don't kill me!"

Sango glared at Kagome a moment longer before slinking back to the door of her room. "And… **WHY** were you trying to help that… that **SLUG** meet me again?"

"Well that's a bit harsh," Kagome replied, though her sass boiled and evaporated with Sango's replying growl. "Well… he – he seemed really knowledgeable, and he wanted to help us from the beginning! We still don't know what demons are or why they won't leave just our part of the aliens alone! I figured he could help us!"

Sango glared at Kagome, and then back at Miroku, who had pulled himself up from his vomiting position. Somehow his navy button down shirt wasn't ruined by the escapade, but there were bits of discoloration on his beige, linen pants and brown shoes. He tried to catch her gaze and on catching it gulped and decidedly looked down the hallway instead. Sango grabbed her bedroom door, slammed it shut, pulled out her room key, and locked it swiftly.

Kagome's mouth fell open in tragedy. "But-but-but the map-!"

"…is not reserved for traitors," Sango replied while pushing her arms across her chest, though after the few moments she needed to cool her head she took pity on her friend. "I'll show them to you later…when Dr. Grope isn't here. Help me find an escape hatch to push him out of."

"Wha-!" Miroku gasped. "You can't be serious!"

Kagome hurried over behind Sango, who turned so fast that this time her hair smacked Kagome in the face.

"Me? I can't be serious? Oh ho ho ho…" Sango replied maliciously. Kagome waited her for her to say something else, but instead she gave a leering, dangerous smile. The lieutenant turned on her heel and strode down the hallway.

Miroku watched her go, and then to Kagome eyes wide with terror.

"What, never been scared of a woman before?" Kagome chided with a joking smile.

Miroku clenched his fists and swallowed again. He looked down at the ground, back at Sango, and shook his head in the manner of a wet dog drying himself. He looked back at Sango, then back at the ground. He flexed his hands twice, rubbed them together, and then ran one set of fingers through his hair. "Oh mothers of fire and earth…"

Kagome raised an eyebrow, turning her body towards the stairs but not taking a step to leave yet. "What?"

He looked at Kagome, then back at the ground. "You seem mature enough…,"

Miroku looked at Kagome dead in the eye, still terrified. "I've never had a boner like this in my life, I don't know what to do."

'_DON'T LOOK DON'T LOOK DON'T LOOK DON'T—God DAMMIT Kagome, why did you look at his crotch!'_

Kagome closed her eyes and covered her face with one hand. But she couldn't hold it in: she started shaking her head back and forth and laughing. "I… I… just don't grope me again," and with that she turned and ran down the hall to the stairs. She slipped a moment before grabbing the handrail, yelped, and slowed on her descent towards her friend. She caught up with Sango about the time a tired looking janitor walked past her at the far end of the starboard lounge.

"Well THAT was a side of you I've never seen before," Kagome said, still giddy on the laughter.

Sango remained quiet as she passed through the rear door of the lounge and into another hall, though this one had walls of metal framing and parts of the dirigible's inner workings could be seen and heard. Kagome waited for any response, but after a few minutes and a detour through the kitchen she figured it was fruitless. "So the maps… what were you going to show me?"

"…please tell me you didn't actually let him in my room," Sango replied. Her walk slowed to a stop on one of the railing halls.

Kagome frowned. "…Of course not Sango. I tend to be nosy, but not… I'm not even sure what letting something of a stranger into a friend's room would fall under: manipulative, creepy, or stupid… maybe all three,"

Sango visibly sighed. "Good… and thanks, I guess… I just _hate_ that guy."

"Sango, you hardly know him."

"Please, I don't want to have that argument right now."

"Okay…" Kagome backed off, and waited in silence. She moved around Sango so she could stand next to her and see her face: Lt. Taijiya was staring at the ground angrily.

"…I mean, I don't have to know him to hate his guts, to hate men like that!"

Kagome raised an eyebrow. "Uhh… I thought we weren't having that argument… though… what kind of a man is he?"

"The kind that think they're so much better than women, that want to dominate them with pretty words and then just run out on you right when you've fallen into their grasp…"

'_I have the sneaking suspicion there is more here than meets the eye here…_' Kagome thought. "So… you revolt at the company of men who use women's wants and dreams to take advantage of them emotionally and physically, is that right?"

"No, you can't take advantage of me—I mean a woman emotionally, that's just collateral damage from the physical advantage taking of… ugh, listen to me, I'm not making any sense." Sango said, closing her eyes in frustration.

"Well, logically not so much, but I think that's because right now your emotions are flared, not your mind, so to speak."

"You sound like that old woman - - Kaede, that's her name."

"Well, her philosophy overlaps with a lot of the stuff I've learned, so it makes sense for me to use her… terms… that's not the right word, help me out."

Sango thought for a moment. "A set of terms or vocabulary for a particular subject… terminology is a word you could use. Or lexicon."

"Okay, well that's why I'm using her lexi..." Kagome scrunched up her face, sounding the word out in her head. "Lexicon. Anyway, it sounds like to me that you haven't had the greatest history with men in terms of relationships."

Sango sighed. "No kidding. I'm twenty three and… you know, just forget it."

"What? No, Sango, don't drop the matter like that so easily, this is important!"

"No it's not Kagome, I'll tell you about the maps now."

Kagome glared at her friend. "Sango…!"

"I just told you it's not important, so let the matter drop!"

"It seemed important enough to make a man puke his guts out a minute ago!" Kagome shot back.

"Well he deserved it!"

"A slap, maybe, but intestinal damage!"

"Ugh, you're too young to understand this Kagome, just leave me-"

"Sango, don't use that excuse with me, it's just like my dad-!"

Sango turned to leave but jumped back when she found Kaede standing there, silently. "Excuse me, Kaede," She began, but the old woman cut her off.

"Do you know what keeps these dirigibles afloat?" Kaede asked her.

Sango let out a sigh of irritation. "Gas, ma'am, usually helium or hydrogen, but the latter is explosive so it tends not to be used, now if you excuse—"

"Yes, that is the vital material that allows these ships to stay up in the air, but what keeps them from flying so high that they reach into space, and what keeps us moving forward through the air?"

Kagome recognized the woman's stance as the one the old miko would take in Kyoto, back when she was younger. That resolute but reflective and open position was reserved for teaching, usually on days when Kagome was so angry at her father or someone else that she was taking it out on other people and needed to have a talk. Kagome silently moved behind Sango to make it harder for her to turn around and walk away.

Sango took a long, slow breath of air. She folded her arms, but she seemed to get the picture that Kaede wasn't moving any time soon. "The helium allows the balloon to remain buoyant because it is a lighter element than the breathable atmosphere, but if you want to make the ship descend its operators use machines to take that normal air in, thereby making the entire balloon heavier without wasting hydrogen. If you take on enough, you can make the ship land. And as for moving forward through the air, it has a propulsion system just like any other flying device: what are you getting at?"

"As I was walking through the ship in my meditation," Kaede began, her eyes loosely honed on Sango and her hand upon her chin. "I was thinking about the workings of dirigibles, and how similar they are to the emotions I study as a Daughter of the Mother of Fire. You see, we cannot determine how we look like or how we function mechanically for the most part, much like this ship, but those who direct it can choose to do different things to keep it afloat and on the course it needs to be for now. As you said, some people will fill their balloons with hydrogen because it is easy to manufacture and very effective, but as you said it is easily combustible. Just the same, we people can try to harbor generalizations about life and certain kinds of people because they are simple and effective, but they are only effective for so long. You see, many girls come to the Daughter's compound in search of assistance finding love, but they harbor such great pain from floundered attempts at love in the past that they generalize men. It is very simple to think all men are evil, lecherous fools who are only out in the world to steal the bodily pleasures of a woman, but it is not true, and when these girls are forced to deal with this truth… well, most of them react violently.

"Designing a better dirigible took time, trial and effort. Inventors started with hydrogen and, after catastrophes, moved on to helium. Helium is harder to find and extract for use, but it is much more stable. Similarly, it is hard to live through the pains of cracked dreams, floundered moments, and missed opportunities, but we live better lives with more long-lasting happiness if we work to understand our pains and figure out the truth. And in this case, the truth is not all men are after sexual pleasure from women and they won't do anything to get it. In fact, some men are only interested in other men! But there are many others who actually feel the same about women, that all women do is draw men in for transitory pleasure and then spit them out like foul meat.

"…and now I must admit I am surprised you have listened to me so far! I am accustomed to argumentative people - - it is nice to find someone who is willing to open themselves and listen." Kaede said with a smile. Sango's eyes had sunk to the floor, but they jumped back to Kaede tiredly, but kindly.

"May I go on, Ms. Taijiya?"

"… Yes, ma'am."

Kaede smiled. "And so polite too! Well, to continue, this ship takes on and releases normal air to go up and down, but its steering and propulsion mechanisms make it go left or right and slow or fast. Each of these things is important in keeping the ship on its appropriate trajectory, but the reality is no one can ever stay on a perfect trajectory."

"You're right," Sango interjected. "I've… I've trained as a pilot. During training we would be told to go from point A to point B, and when you start out you think it will be easy, just a straight line. But when you are up in the air you have to worry about the barometric pressure which tells you how heavy the air is you are flying into, as well as wind speed… even how hot or cold the air is, not to mention the landscape you are flying over. Oh, and the clouds, of course, and their weather. Each of these things affect how close you can keep yourself to that line, and sometimes you wobble from it a little bit, and other times you don't pay attention to the line, you just focus on getting to where you need to go however possible."

Kaede beamed. "Excellent, you took my point right out of my mouth. When it comes to love and partners, and people in general, we have to remember that even though we may have straight lines going towards them, real life is never that clean. We've all had dreams and ideas of what an ideal relationship looks like, including how it starts and, if we are brave, how it ends, but reality cannot and rarely will follow that path. We have to figure out how why we admire those perceptions of love so much, and once we know that we can know what to work for in a relationship.

"And also, Ms. Pilot, what is the trickiest part of flying something?"

"The start, take off," Sango replied with a smile.

"Eeeexactly," Kaede replied, lowering her hand from her chin to clap against her other one. "I do not know whether there is real potential between you and whatever man you two were talking about, but try to see past the simple answer used to explain his behavior, and instead look for the real heart of his fire. If that is not appropriate for you, then walk away, but if it is appropriate, then linger around the fire and see how you warm by it."

The walkway was silent for a few moments aside from the beastly whirring of engines and ducts.

"That doesn't make me feel any better," Sango admitted sullenly.

"It's not supposed to," Kaede replied. "It is supposed to give you the information you need so that you can prevent the very things that are making you feel uneasy now. This is a vaccination, not a band-aid."

"So… what _would_ make me feel better?" Sango asked slowly.

Kaede looked upwards and exhaled in thought. "Well Ms. Taijiya, I do not know you very well, but I know a few basics about you, and I know a fair deal more about people in general. I would say go and do something that has brought you glee since you were very young, and do that for a while. After you do that, apologize to this man, and work to regain your honor, though make it clear to him that it is your honor you work to redeem, not his impression of you. And also think about the things we just talked about. But don't let this entire thing hang over you - - no cloud lasts forever."

Sango nodded her head once, thanked Kaede, turned and slowly walked back the way she came with Kagome by her side. The two women remained quiet as they passed through the kitchen and moved back towards the starboard lounge.

"…I really blew up at you earlier, didn't I?" Sango said quietly, walking along the metal corridor.

"…yeah, you kinda did," Kagome replied, slowing her pace. There was a pause, but Kagome couldn't figure out how to fill it; instead she remained quiet.

Sango sighed. "…and I also… threw that professor into the railing…"

Kagome nodded slowly. "Acknowledging our actions and their effects is the first step to… ah… forgiveness…," She trailed off as Sango glared at her.

"I get the point, I was in the wrong this time," Sango spat out. Kagome raised a brow and bit her lip but didn't say anything.

Sango sighed. "…Here, come back to my room and I'll give you the maps. But I want to be alone to think for a little while, okay?"

Kagome nodded carefully, and followed Sango into the lounge. Though her eyes lingered on Miroku who sat at one of the tables wiping at his pants, she kept up with her friend, receiving two atlases before finding herself alone on the hallway.

_'…Well now what…?'_ Kagome thought to herself. She looked down at the atlases. Small pieces of paper with scribbled words hung out from the top edges of the book, products of Sango's work no doubt. '_…Miroku's in the starboard lounge… I guess I'll go talk to him…'_

As she took her first few steps to leave, Kagome heard something from behind Sango's door. It was low and soft at first; maybe crying? But a few moments more and Kagome felt muscles she didn't realized she'd tensed relax:

Kaede had advised Sango to do something that had brought her happiness for most of her life. Apparently for her, the thing that brought her happiness was singing.

* * *

_To anyone who says you never use math outside of school - - I just had to use Pythagorean's theorum to figure out how long it would take the group to travel from Prustinjadom to Dulas. YIKES._

_Also, I originally intended this chapter to be much MUCH longer (I've gotten 50 chapters planned out for the whole story… eheh…), but there is a lot of character development that takes place during this part of the tale, so I'm breaking the one huge chapter into several smaller ones - - that way you all get to read things sooner! (My aim is to get an update out to y'all once a week)_


	7. Chapter 5 Part B

Chapter 5 (part B)

Kagome waved her hand in front of her face as she passed through a cloud of vomit vapor. Miroku still looked shaken when she stepped up to the table he was sitting at, a glass of water at hand.

"How ya doing?"

He held up his thumb with a grimace. Kagome nodded with a sympathetic smile. As he took another sip of water she sat down across from him, setting the atlases down on the tabletop and opening the top one. On the inside cover she found another world map like the one she had seen so many times before now: the huge continent Asigo in the North, Nafika and Nindiya in the south, and Niraq in the far east. She turned the page and studied the contents of the book before turning to look at the country of Ko. Judging from the legend the Republic of Ko was about the size of Mongolia or almost the size of the eastern half of the United States. She pursed her lips; those places really didn't mean anything to anyone around here, did they?

'_I shouldn't focus on that. I need to focus on the bigger picture here - - I can use my past understanding of the world's geography understand this new world.'_

The country itself kind of looked like a jumping dolphin if it had been tossed into a blender; The head of the dolphin was at the coast while the top fin jutted north into the country West Mercia, and its tail fin was in the west, making the border with Iguto, Texa Merica, and another place called Caida. Kagome pressed her fingers over the geographic features on the paper, tracing the outline of the Luanda Mountains in the west and the many ranges of the Appach Plateau in the east. It looked like there were many rivers in the country... would trees there look like the ones she saw in Zaba? Orange-ish yellow and crossed between a fern and a pine tree? Or would they be some other foreign thing?

"You said that you work at a college in... in this place, Aplorchard?" Kagome asked, her eyes and fingers still on the book.

Miroku nodded. "Yeah, of Biochemistry and History."

Kagome let her eyebrows rise. "I didn't know you were so well trained. You must know

a lot about this world and how it works."

He smiled weakly. "Heh heh, thank you Ms. Higurashi."

Kagome rolled her eyes, turning them to him instead of the book. "That's my mom. Just call me Kagome."

"Is, uh... is Sango always so vitriolic?"

Kagome blinked once, and then pointed to herself. "English is not my first language, I have no idea what that last word you used means."

"Oh right, I keep forgetting - - Well, I've never known of other _languages_, but it really is fascinating, I wonder if there are...," Miroku gripped his stomach and winced. "Ow..."

"Sorry..." Kagome said with a soft smile. "I wasn't expecting her to react like that, but I also wasn't expecting you to waltz right into her room like that! But c'mon, what does vit-vitriolic mean?"

"Uh... it means harsh or scathing. It's an adjective."

"Ahh...," Kagome nodded. "Well, no, Sango is usually very considerate and level headed. But after that little escapade she and I talked a bit with Kaede... She seems to have had a bad history with men."

"And thus her biochemistry with men isn't that good either?" Miroku smiled boyishly.

Kagome smiled and leaned back in her chair a bit. "I see what you did there."

Miroku gave a slight bow with his head.

"But enough of that stuff Miroku, the main reason I wanted to talk with you was-"

"I remember why, you wrote it to me in that letter, and sorry Kagome I have no idea what the demons are doing."

Kagome fell out of her seat with a yelp. "WHAT? HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW!" She slammed her palm into her forehead. "Ugh, what is it with everyone on this planet; they all claim that the demons are like this or the demons are like that but in reality you guys know next to diddly squat about them!"

"Hey, I happen to know a lot about demons, thank you very much!" Miroku shot back.

Kagome raised an eyebrow. "Please tell me more than 'they're super freakin' powerful', or 'they have a religion that focuses on the Silver Emperor,'..."

Miroku smiled and pointed his finger up in the air as if he predicted enlightenment to whoever heard his next words. "I know much more!"

Kagome raised both eyebrows.

"They have their own tongue too, demon tongue!"

Kagome's mouth slackened. She swung her arm around to slap him across the face bust he ducked and held up his glass of water shakily.

"Please, I'm just a humble professor!"

"A professor who studied what?"

"History and Biochemistry!"

"And yet he knows next to nothing about the history or biochemistry of a race of super-humans, apparently, who had some kind of civil war in the last few decades and terrorize the living crap out of everyone whose path they cross!"

"Wait!" Miroku peered at Kagome over the top of his glass. "I know plenty about the civil war! That happened when I was a kid, it's what got me interested in history in the first place!"

Kagome tilted her head slightly. "Aoh... so what was the civil war about?"

* * *

"Inuyasha, your brother is a cruel person, this is not a fact unknown to ye!"

"Aren't you supposed to use, I dunno, regular talk when you're outside the compound?" Inuyasha retorted to Kaede. He stood with his arms crossed in the doorway of her room, which was simple: a white bed, a small window, and a satchel filled with the old woman's travelling goods.

"I believe I shall be forgiven my transgression considering how familiar I am with that speech while in thoust company, Inuyasha," Kaede replied huskily. "And if we are in sooth to have this conversation, then I believe it most wise if you shut the door before continuing."

Inuyasha spit out an unhappy response below his breath but he walked into her room and slammed the door shut behind him. Kaede sat cross-legged on the floor. "Fucking bastard..." he muttered.

Kaede stomached the language. "Inuyasha, did ye really not see this coming? Ever since the war your brother has been terrified of the forces that want to see you placed on the throne in his stead, not to mention a whole other faction of the demon world that still claims that Koga of the Forest Wolf Clan is still the rightful king."

"Yeah, yeah, I know you old hag! Sessh's mother hated mine because she was human, had her killed and pushed out the wolves so her little doggy boy could sit happy on the throne, I got it, okay!"

"No, Inuyasha...," Kaede looked up at him like a grandmother to her troubled grandson. "I mean this telegram ye received. Can't you see this trap? King Sesshomaru has no intention of ever letting you return to Iguto!"

Inuyasha whirled and glared at her. His stare held as long as his breath. "That's stupid, hag. I'm his brother, I'm the prince, he's just being a dick about requiring me to bring that girl back-"

"And he won't tell you why, will he?"

Inuyasha continued to glare, but Kaede watched his eyes slowly widen. "No..."

"Exactly... Inuyasha, sit down with me, please, this angle ails my neck..."

Inuyasha remained standing, eye ablaze with anger but fueled by confusion. After several moments Kaede sighed.

"Consider the past, Inuyasha. Before the war, the Wolf demons and Dog demons were united in the House of the Dog and Wolf, as they have been for nearly 400 years now. Thou's father... I know ye never knew him, and how I wish ye had, for he was such an example of junzi... He was a reformer,"

"Yeah, I know," Inuyasha shot back hurriedly. "He wanted to abolish the monarchy in favor of a federated republic with the king as just a figure-head. He was weak and stupid, committing suicide instead of facing his-"

"Inuyasha!" Kaede growled at him.

"He was a coward for killing himself! He should have stayed and fought for what he wanted! Instead the bastard just gave up and let himself die so..."

"...So your mother would be allowed to live," Kaede replied angrily. " Not that is worked, but that does not change the fact that love is not cowardice, Inuyasha, and most people who take their own lives do so in desperation. Your father felt there was no other way to save your mother. Nothing in the world is cut and dry, nothing is as simple as black and white!"

Inuyasha glared at her for a long while. Slowly his gaze softened, and he sat down, but he folded his legs under his body instead of Kaede's cross-legged.

"Guess we're just going to have to agree to disagree on this one, you old fire witch."

Kaede shook her head slowly. "You have your mother's interpretation of the world, that's for sure. Just like you she was so determined to see the world in only one way... it was no wonder why she was such a renowned abbot of the Daughters of Earth.

"But Inuyasha, listen to me. I regularly speak with the demons in the slums outside of Polis. There are many demons and half demons there who speak openly of their disgust with King Sesshomaru and his actions. They look to you to be king, but the King knows that a rag-tag group of rebels from shantytowns outside of Iguto poses no match to his well trained army of demons deep in the desert. But he also knows that there are still many people within Iguto that would be willing to fight to remove him and place you on the throne in accordance with at least one of the royal traditions."

"...You mean the tradition where the second born child is crowned instead of the first born so that the first born can become an adviser to the new monarch." Inuyasha said plainly.

"Inuyasha!" Kaede shouted. His ears twitched in pain. "Listen to me! Your half brother and his mother know you are popular as a former soldier. They fear ye, they fear the empathy their citizens feel for you! King Sesshomaru told ye that ye are not allowed to return to Iguto without the _alien family_ because he knows it is an impossible act. He had spies in the hospital, just as Kagura and that new attaché from Sokoku did! They know that the Higurashi family is terrified of demons after Kagura's outburst in Prialata!"

"Old woman that's a bunch of-"

"Inuyasha, when did the King send that telegram?"

Inuyasha looked down at the crumpled piece of paper in his hand. "The time card says last week. The carrier said they lost the message but recovered it this morning when they brought it on the 'loon."

"Isn't it strange that he would have a message sent to ye saying ye had failed and weren't allowed to return home _the day of _thoust supposed failure? The message claims that he personally heard of this 'failure', but so soon? What does that mean Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha scrunched his brow and stared at the ground, but after several moments he looked back to Kaede.

"Two things, Inuyasha," She held up her hand with index and middle finger erect. "It means he had a way of learning what happened in detail at the meeting and with Kagura very, very quickly. Quicker than would normally be the case - - ye are the Attaché, the normal way for him to learn that you couldn't bring the aliens to Iguto would have been for you to report that to him yourself!"

Inuyasha dug his nails into the ground and snarled. "AwwwWWW DAMMIT KAEDE, GOD DAMMIT!"

Kaede lowered her middle finger. "And that of course means that if he heard that information and then replied so quickly that he somehow knew that asking you to bring the aliens to Iguto was nigh impossible. And if I remember correctly, Iguto was the last country to volunteer its territory as an abode for them: The Yokai Republic sent their invitation first, then Ko, then Sokoku, and last Iguto. He is using your 'failure' as a pretext to keep you out of the country for an undefined amount of time."

Inuyasha slammed his fists down on the floor, splintering the wood. He roared and threw a plank at the wall behind him, which caught the pillow on the bed and pinned it to the wall like an arrow through a dove.

Kaede breathed deeply. "Inuyasha, Prince Inuyasha... remember your breath that your mother taught you... she too learned that no person is defined their emotions. You feel rage in this moment, but you are not your rage. You have room in your heart for other things. Now breathe and let those other sides of yourself express themselves..."

Inuyasha was crouched on the bed, holding the tattered remains of his green jacket in feral claws. Feathers floated down as his head snapped back at Kaede, his eyes red, teeth bared.

"**DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!**" he roared, and his bloody eyes were suddenly millimeters away from Kaede's. She could barely make out the blue, white slivers of his demon irises, though his snarling breath made it hard for her to focus, as did the talons at her throat.

"I am not telling ye what to do, I am reminding ye of who ye are. Ye are the son of a King and a Priestess, the child of a demon and a human. Ye are strong and brave and considerate and wise, but also so hurt by the undeserved cruelty of so many people encountered in thoust life. And I am telling ye, Inuyasha, that there is room in thou's heart to feel all of these things, to feel thoust rage against thoust brother as well as thoust love towards the memory of thoust mother."

Inuyasha continued to rumble and his eyes remained red, but several moments passed, and Kaede heard him mutter, "...**the fire parable**..."

Kaede smiled slightly. "Yes, the fire parable. I would love to hear ye remind me what it is."

Inuyasha's shoulder slackened slightly. "**Mother... the fire parable, the earth notice, the air gospel, the water way... the fire... the fire**..."

"**The fire parable dictates, according to the Daughters of Fire, that all emotion is transitory but valid. One must acknowledge one's emotions, feel them, and then let them pass like smoke into the night.**"

Kaede smiled. "Yes, exactly right Inuyasha. Let the fire of this moment pass as if it were smoke into the night sky."

Inuyasha kept his glare, but slowly his snarls smoothed down to ragged breaths, and his hand dropped away from the wall. Eventually he fell back to the ground, sitting, his irises dilating slowly to their normal, golden size. And for just one moment Kaede thought she might witness him cry, the first time in all her years looking after him since the boy's mother died, but instead his face turned resolute.

"Thous' inner tempests have not improved, have they Prince Inuyasha?"

He remained silent for several moments. "...Sesshomaru is up to something big, isn't he?"

Kaede sighed. "Yes, but I want ye to figure this out. I mentioned the pieces before, so connect the dots. He and his mother are afraid of ye posing a threat to their legitimacy on the throne, but they are more afraid of those people within Iguto who would want to see ye placed on the throne..."

Inuyasha stared at the ground for a moment, then his eyes snapped up to Kaede's, wide like a panicked child. "He's going to kill them all. Political genocide. Anyone who doesn't agree with their rule... he's going to kill them all."

Kaede looked down at the ground, but she nodded. "Yes, I fear this is what King Sesshomaru aims to do. But I do not know for certain - I shall have to consult with the Table of Water to find what is most probably... Ye may want to consult with them too, if ye were to come to Polis."

Inuyasha's teeth were bared again, but Kaede did not see his eyes fading like they did before: he was keeping his demonic pulses under control. "How can I just sit here while he does this to my people, to the entire country!"

"Inuyasha," Kaede repeated. "I am not asking ye to do nothing about this predicament. I am asking you to consider thou's options. Ye cannot return to Iguto, nigh any other demonic country. It makes the most sense to travel with the Higurashi family and associate with them for a while and plan your next move. There are many resources in Polis that may help ye with this predicament, too. We may find a diplomatic way to draw Sokoku's and the Youkai Republic's attention to the internal affairs of Iguto, and thereby prevent anything from happening.

"If anything is to happen. We must remember that right now we are analyzing an odd situation and are coming up with possible explanations - - neither ye nor I are all knowing, and we must consult with others before acting."

* * *

"So... let me get this straight," Kagome said, walking along side Miroku as they paced around the lounge, trying to shake off his spazing abdominal muscles and nausea. "The war broke out thirty years ago because of two major violations of the monarchy's internal rules. The first rule is that the crown shall change heads every five years between the Wolf King and the Dog King to ensure fairness and wisdom: this was broken by Meidoseki, the Dog Queen at the time and mother of the present King Sesshomaru. The second rule was that the second child of the reigning monarch should be crowned the new monarch should the first one die: This rule was also broken by Meidoseki and Sesshomaru, who forced Inuyasha and his mother, Queen Izayoi, out of the royal palace after the shady death of the last Dog King, Inutaisho... wow, my head is still spinning from all this information."

"I'll be happy to repeat it if you want, or write it down if you want to be able to read it a few times to help it sink in." Miroku replied kindly.

"No, it's okay, I think I've got it... though, I'm a bit confused about something else. I can understand why the wolf demon tribe tried to fight the power grab by Sesshomaru and Meidoseki, but why was there such a huge civil war in Iguto itself? I mean... most monarchies make the first child the heir to the throne on Beji, don't they? And its not like power grabs aren't all that unusual historically speaking."

"They are common for humans, yes," Miroku replied, edging his way around a chair. "But this was actually the first recorded power grab in the history of the demon states, and that history goes all the way back to the Silver Emperor - - which, if you remember-"

"Yes - - the time of the Silver Emperor was a little more than 2000 years ago. According to legends he was able to unite the entire world in an era when humans and demons lived together peacefully." Kagome replied with a smile. "

"Very good, you get an A -," Miroku replied.

"Only an A -?"

"You neglected to mention that the Silver Empire's reign came to an end at the same time that the Kwisk arrived on Beji, and that began the 200 year period known as the Dark Age."

"Oh yeah, that part..." Kagome murmured. They made another round of the lounge. "How's you're stomach doing?"

"It's not pleasant, but I'll be all right," He said with a smile.

Kagome smirked back. "And how's the boner doing?"

Miroku paled as his shoulders jerked up. "You talk about it like it was an everyday topic…"

"Sex and sexuality are a normal part of life. The doesn't mean that we should be talking about it or pursuing it like a good lunch or something, but that doesn't mean we have to fear it either."

Miroku's shoulders slipped back down to normalcy and his brow furrowed. "I wouldn't expect you of all people to have that attitude. And speaking of lunch would you like some?"

"Sure, let's go to the kitchen," Kagome replied, heading for the back hallway. "I come from a country steeped in Confucian perceptions of the world, but I was never around adherents of that perception of the world long enough to pick it up. When I was younger - - watch the door, it swings both ways - - when I was younger I spent a lot of time with Shinto, Buddhist, and Taoist religious followers."

Miroku caught up from behind her and tried to walk along side of her. "So… Shinto, Buddhist, and Taoist were religions on your planet?"

"Well, sort of," Kagome replied. "And they're –ism's, not –ists. It is Buddhism and Taosim, not Buddhist and Taoist. And only Shinto I think really counts as a religion as it provided large explanations for the forces in the world and how humans should behave to keep those forces on their side as best they could. Taoism and Buddhism don't really do that… They provide explanations for how life and humans work, and from this information guide how people should consider their place in the world and thereby how to live. Though there are some smaller branches of Buddhism and Taoism that are more religious than philosophical, but that's not really important here I guess."

Miroku nodded slowly and slipped his hands into his pockets. "Well… the boner hasn't really gone away," He laughed.

"You may want to work on that before you see Sango again," Kagome replied, pushing into the kitchen. She asked the cooks hat they were offering for lunch, and after waiting a few minutes received it in a small bowl: A mix of sweet smelling eggs, rice, and savory spices with bits of what looked like chopped broccoli mixed in. She thanked them for the food, received a maroon drink that was supposed to go with it, and started walking back towards the lounge.

"Actually," Miroku started as they walked down the path. "I was wondering if you'd be willing to help me with that problem of mine?"

Kagome slowed and glowered at the professor's smiling face for only a moment. She held her breath, remembered her training, and responded. "No, no thanks. I said I recognize sex and sexuality's place in life, not that I regularly visit that place with other people. One of the core principles of Buddhism is the Middle Way, and when it comes to sex that means refraining from sexual misconduct. Sexual misconduct means refraining from engaging in sexual activities with someone simply for the pleasure of it. Pleasure seeking quickly leads to craving and dissatisfaction for life without easy pleasure, and it also implies that one starts using other people as tools for their pleasure instead of as a whole human being. Such behavior deals great damage upon the world, and from that damage comes more confusion, craving, and destruction."

"You make it sound like casual sex is going to make Beji fall apart," Miroku replied defensively.

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Of course casual sex isn't going to make the planet fall apart. But I can't say the same for people's lives. There are a lot of people who, after having sex just for pleasure and focusing just on that aspect of it, reorient their entire lives to get more of that kind of sex like it's a drug. They never learn what it means to have intimate sex instead of pleasurable sex… well, I guess that's an oversimplification of how humans work, but its not off by much. Long story short I don't engage in casual sex because I don't want to cause myself or other people the pain that comes along with that kind of craving. That's all."

"I can respect that," Miroku replied, following her through the doorway to the lounge and finding a seat. "But there is nothing wrong with two or more people coming together and just having a good time. It can be a great, positive experience."

"That's not the point," Kagome replied. "The point is… how do you feel after you've had sex with those people?… though I'll be upfront when I say the thought of having sex with more than one other person makes me want to puke."

Miroku smiled. "Well, its something different, that much is true,"

"I'm ignoring you now until you answer my question," Kagome exclaimed, stabbing at her egg mix with her *fork.

"How do I feel after sex… I don't know. Tired I guess."

"Not physically, I meant emotionally and mentally, or spiritually even if you can go that far."

Miroku stared up at the ceiling as he crossed his arms. "Hm… depends on the person I'm with. I mean, generally I feel good. It's always felt good afterwards."

"You mean you've never felt any regret for any night you spent with someone? No desire to have a deeper connection with the person, wishing that they you didn't have to feign friendliness after you see them later on having left them with only one night?"

Miroku continued to hum in thought, but eventually he shook his head. "Not really. I _do_ tend to go about the matter more studiously then other men… I don't aim to deceive a woman into thinking I'm offering more than I am, and I deliberately choose to engage with women who are okay with casual sex. It's not like sex is something sacred."

"I wish the catholic priests could pummel your ass," Kagome hissed in Japanese.

"Hm? You say something?"

"Nope. Either way that's my position on the matter. And when I left Earth scientists had isolated the parts of the brain that get activated by sex versus by love and emotional connection, and they overlap. As far as I'm concerned sex and emotional connectedness god hand in hand and can never be isolated: someone can go into sex without the desire for emotional connection, but whether they like it or not their body will force them to feel an emotional connection to whoever they slept with."

"…sounds like you're saying I'm a liar who is living in denial," Miroku said with an angry lilt to his voice.

Kagome chewed on her *fork. "Yeah it kind of did. Sorry, I didn't mean to phrase that in a… in an insulting manner. I just… I get really angry at people who try to use other people as means to an ends instead of as whole, worthwhile people."

"…and I think I can see how you saw my words as exemplative as way of thinking," Miroku replied with a sigh. "Though you should be more careful – most people don't listen to wildly different opinions like I do."

"Believe me," Kagome replied, her *fork in her eggs and her mind in her memories of her father. "I know."

Kagome found Sango several hours later, sounding hoarse for some reason but otherwise ameliorated. Together they worked over the details of demons and the planet to figure out what they knew. There was a demon monarchy that fell into civil war because of the world's first demon power grab. Demons generally were Emprists, believing in the ways set forth by someone called the Silver Emperor. All of the demon countries were united once but they had broken apart, and the two newest demon countries seemed to be treating the world as their play thing and there was nothing any other country could do about it. But there was still one big hole in their understanding.

"Why did they invite us to live there?..." Kagome whined, flopping over on Sango's bed. The two, Ms. Higurashi, and Hanzel had gathered in Sango's room, which was littered from their devoured dinner and dimly lit as the sun had set.

"We're not going to figure that out by asking it over and over again," Hanzel interjected. "We don't have that information, so what's the point?"

Sango nodded once before turning to Kagome again. "Maybe we should talk to that Inuyasha guy. He's on this dirigible. Its unlikely but he may be willing to give us _something_…"

"I doubt it," Kagome replied. "I had a little _altercation_ with that woman, Kagura. She gave me just enough to not be helpful, and I'm guessing he'll be the same."

The room was quiet for a few moments. "Two important things," Ms. Higurashi eventually said. "I worry about you when we… touch land."

Hanzel and Sango looked up at her in confusion. "Me?" They asked in unified disbelief.

"Yes," Ms. Higurashi smiled, delighted she had been understood. "You and you! Uh… Kagome?"

"Translate?" Kagome inquired without moving.

"Yes please dear."

"Go ahead, I'll do my best."

Ms. Higurashi nodded, and began speaking, though it was Kagome's voice the American's heard.

"I am worried about you two because… Kagome and I have lived with the press for long parts of our lives, and we are used to having some parts of our privacy permanently invaded. But you two have had different lives. Something I think we should discuss is how to prepare you for what may be months or years worth of… I don't know how to translate that last word, but it's something like 'being invaded repeatedly'," Kagome said wearily. "And I want to get off this balloon. She didn't say that, that was me."

"Emergency parachutes are on the main deck, have fun." Hanzel replied dryly. Sango smirked.

"What did he say?" Ms. Higurashi asked. Kagome informed her, and her mother burst out laughing.

Which garnered the bewildered stares of everyone else in the room.

"Mother, how is that so funny?"

"Oh my goodness, wait a moment!" She replied, holding onto her stomach. "It's just- - I said that once when you were little! We were in Kyoto in that one apartment, the one with the gray walls, remember? You were whining about school before your father got home, and I told you that school was important and that you needed to make sure you did't let him hear you when he returned. So you said, 'I want out, tell me how to get out of school and dad mama!', so I said, 'There are emergency parachutes in the closet, have a safe flight.' There were plastic bags stored in the closet, and I remember when your dad got home he was so perplexed by the sight of you running around the apartment with a plastic bag around your arms and another on your head that he couldn't say anything at all. Oh, that was such a good day!"

Kagome smiled warmly, and offered a truncated version of the tale to the English speakers. They smiled in return.

"A little you running around with shopping bags on your head…" Hanzel repeated, chuckling.

"Yes, it's so hilarious I'm willing to forgo the thought of jumping from this aircraft to a watery death," Kagome replied dryly. "Though my mom has a point: you two are going to have to learn at least some of the basics of dealing with reporters. From what I saw on TV in Prialata they are about the same here as they were on Earth: persistent, respectful if you're lucky, and looking for drama."

The troupe ran through some ideas for evading presumptive questions before the lights flickered twice - - the signal that it was ten minutes until lights out in the passenger cabin to conserve power. Sango waved the others goodbye, and then Ms. Higurashi and Kagome parted ways from Hanzel, located on the second tier, while the Higurashi compartment was on the first. Kagome didn't bother inquiring on her lame grandfather when they arrived, instead patting Sota on the head once, brushing her teeth, and then falling flat onto her bed. So many things had happened that day… leaving the hospital, learning basics of dirigibles, Sango's outburst and Kaede's message, the talk with Miroku, the lessons with Sango and Hanzel… she just wanted life to shut up and let her rest.

But as tired as she was sleep eluded her like a butterfly just higher than its catcher's net. Events from the day repeated on her eyelids again and again no matter what position she changed her pillow too. Until,

'_All you have to do is try to bring us honor, Kagome! My wife won't say it, but you disappoint her, and me! Put take those things off, stop behaving so selfishly and do your duty!'_

She shot straight up in bed sweating. No one else was awake. The room was dark aside from the moons' light in a window, and the engines whirred along with the stratosphere's wind.

Kagome sighed and drew her legs up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and pressing her eyes against her knee-caps. Her eyes hurt so much, just like most other sleepless nights. And like those ones her father made an appearance in this one, or his words and voice via her memory did. She was tempted to look over at her mother and study her sleeping face, see whether the disappointment was really there. But she willed herself not to.

'_My dad,_' she thought to herself. _'Was trying to control me so I would do what he wanted, so I could be a chess piece in his political game. He used mom as a weapon to get there. It was a lie. It was a lie. It was a lie…'_

"It was a lie, it was a lie…" She repeated to herself in whisper. "It was a lie…"

Eventually her eyes opened and she looked at the wall hidden in shadow before her. "Sorry mom, but dad _did_ talk that day, just not to you…"

The second day on the dirigible passed less eventfully as the first. Kagome and Sango poured themselves into memorizing maps of the world and Merica until an announcement came over the ship's intercom that they were moving from traveling over water to over land. The two of them looked out the window to see a boggish brown color shoreline coming into view, just about the time Sota ran in, shoved both of them out of the way and pressed his face against the glass. Ms. Higurashi and Hanzel continued with their language lessons. Miroku remained out of Sango's way. Kaede quietly appeared in the random places Kagome walked around when bored.

"Why do I get the feeling there is more to that woman than meets the eye…?" Kagome said quietly to herself a minute after passing her in one of the ships metallic, rebar hallways.

"Because there is."

"HOLY CRAP WHO'S THERE!" Kagome screamed, jumping over one side of the hall and panting like.

There was a tap-tap above her. Kagome's eyes shot up and to the left, and there she found the man with long silver hair and dog ears, sitting on the top of the metal lattice-work ceiling.

"What the HELL are you doing up there, trying to kill me?" She yelled again.

"Jeez woman, don't you ever shut up?" He replied, pressing his ears down to his head in pain.

"Well don't give me a reason to scream for my life then!" Kagome shot back. It was silent for a moment. "You're Inuyasha right?"

"Prince Inuyasha to you," he replied boorishly.

"I'm not impressed by royal titles," She said back just as caustic.

"Maybe you should be, it'd be more fun."

"More fun…?" Kagome repeated slowly. "What, have you been talking to the professor or something? I'm impressed by the guy, not the length of something between his legs."

"The length of the tail you mean," Inuyasha replied, tapping the rebar again and still not looking at her.

"I…" Kagome hesitated. "Yes, the length of the tail. Doesn't matter if its seven feet long or been nubbed, its still just a tail."

"Keh," was the half-demon's response. He pushed himself up and with a deft lunge and spin he had flipped off the top of the hall, grabbed a support rail, and landed crouching in front of her.

"Okay, I admit, that was impressive."

He didn't say anything. He simply stood up and cleared the wrinkles in his off white button down shirt, though it was slightly teal and buttoned down on the right side as opposed to what Kagome was used to seeing.

"So… I'm bored," He eventually said.

Silence.

"Well… you would know that, I guess," Kagome said cautiously.

"Yeah…" Inuyasha replied.

Silence.

Kagome put her hand together, one on top of the other, and twirled her thumbs.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Just walking around, I don't like being cooped u-"

"What are you doing with you _hands_?" Inuyasha clarified with plain irritation.

Kagome looked down and then back up. "I'm doing the awkward turtle."

"The… the what?"

"The awkward turtle. You do this when you're conversing with someone and there is an awkward silence."

"Why?" It sounded like an order more than a question.

"I don't know, just to break the tension?"

"Keh, that's stupid," Inuyasha replied and started walking on.

"If you think so, then you don't have to do it," Kagome replied stiffly. She folded her arms and leaned back on one of the hallway support beams.

After a few moments she realized he had stopped walking. She looked over at Inuyasha and saw his back was still turned on her, but he was staring at her eyes impatiently.

"Well, are you coming?" He asked.

"Coming where? Since when was I walking with you?"

He sighed angrily. "Look, you're bored, I'm bored, we might as well be bored together, all right?"

Kagome's brows furrowed in confusion but she stepped forward and started walking beside him in the dark. Silence quickly ensued the walk and after they had passed through the kitchen, starboard lounge and control room did she speak.

"So… I know you're a prince and attaché, and you're a half-demon…"

"Yep," Inuyasha replied. Kagome rolled her eyes.

"What do you like to do?"

"What's it to you?"

"Wow, this is getting far," Kagome blurted out, her hands slamming over her lips a moment too late. But he didn't stop walking nor did he shoot her a dirty look, so she pressed onwards quietly for a few moments. "You may want to work on being a little more… friendly and open to people if you want to spend time with them, fyi."

"You're doing it again," He said bluntly.

Kagome growled. "Excuse my whiplash by your non-sequitors, but _what_ exactly am I doing again?"

"Using demon tongue. It sounds weird to hear it coming out a human mouth."

"I already told you, it's Japanese," Kagome said. "And so what if it is coming out of a human mouth, its still—"

"Beautiful?" Inuyasha replied, catching her eye with an arched brow. She started a moment, caught by the multiplicity in his face.

"No, that's not what I was going to say, but we can go with that."

The two stepped through a set of doors and found themselves in the leeward lounge, which was populated with a handful of people catching an extra late lunch.

"So… the planet you came from is called Earth… what was it like?" Inuyasha asked. He stopped walking in front of one of the small, circular windows in the cabin. Kagome walked on a bit in front of him and turned to face him. His eyes seemed to dart away from her face to the mountains beneath them.

"Well… Earth was an entire _planet_. It's hard to explain it simply."

Inuyasha nodded once, continuing to stare outside. Kagome frowned again.

"But… the place that I'm from… it's a country called Japan."

"That sounds a lot like Napan," He replied. "Coincidence?"

She smiled slightly at his curiosity. "Not at all. My father was one of the first colonizers of Beji, and he called the colony New Noto. Noto was the city we was born in, it was a town north-west of where I grew up."

Inuyasha nodded deliberately before looking at her directly. "So where in Japan are you from?"

"…Two places, both of them the capital. The first—"

"That's stupid, how can there be two capitals?" Inuyasha said roughly.

Kagome took a breath before answering. "Ah, well… There are… a LOT of ways a country can have two capitals. For Japan… Kyoto is the old capital of the nation, but Tokyo is the capital of the country..."

He was staring out the window, ears perked to the wall. Kagome took it as a sign that he'd lost interest and his mind was elsewhere. After a few moments Kagome rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Okay, well, I'm going to go find my brother. Have a nice day, Inuyasha."

"_Prince_ Inuyasha," he corrected as she started walking away. Kagome let out a sound in between a sigh and a growl before walking on, refusing to answer.

* * *

Sjevernasud was a city on the border of a large, orange desert from Kagome's early morning window prospect. This was the second time she had awoken early enough to see the sun rise after a night of horrible reminders of her father's voice and looks.

_He stared emotionless at her crayon drawing for a moment before turning and walking out the door._

_ "You don't know the world. You won't study with those freaky women at the shrines, I won't let you waste your life in a cult."_

_ "Tell me what your mother said about me. I am your father, you owe it to me."_

_ "You're on your way to being a whore, aren't you?"_

'_No!'_ Kagome shook her head violently, trying to throw out the rancid thoughts. '_Focus on the desert, the rising sun, the red and light blue sky, the red clouds…_'

For several minutes she felt nothing. The whirring of the engines didn't reach her, nor did the slow descent of the balloon, nor the intercom alarm to rouse sleeping passengers. Finally Ms. Higurashi reached out and took her shoulder, telling Kagome it was time to gather their things so they could get right on the next balloon trip to Dulas.

After pushing her grandfather into his wheel chair Kagome wheeled him around the ship until her family found the navigation deck, where she directed the them all down the metal, grated ramp and into the dry, metallic air of this new place. She winced against the abrasive sand carrying gales, which made her wheel Ji-Chan right into Sango's back, who then fell into Hanzel, who then fell into Miroku, who was about to shake hands with the mayor of the city in front of flashing cameras. Kagome hid behind her grandfather a moment before wheeling him over towards the dirigible destined to take the lot to Dulas. She was halfway there when security personnel caught up with her, turning her and her grandfather around to face the cameras and reporters that had been following her like ninja vultures.

The city blurred in front of Kagome's eyes: she was in a car with her hands over her face , being guided by her mother into a moldy smelling building with red marbled floors, and by the time she found herself in a restaurant she had found her 'front page' face. She could hardly stomach the fish with iridescent blue flesh over green rice and black vegetables that tasted like burnt licorice, but not a single reporter was going to know about it.

Kagome helped Sota push their grandfather's wheelchair up the ramp onto the second dirigible as the sky was fading into deep red and violet. She watched her shoes moving one in front of each other, up the ramp, to yet another confine. A wave of sandy wind lashed at her eyes and pressed her on, but when the last of the alien group was on board and the ship was lifting up into the air, she found herself alone at the entry bay. How long had she been standing there, staring at the metal grating beneath her? She blinked her eyes once - - it had been a while since she'd done that apparently, as her eyes stung when her eyelids slid over them.

Kagome looked down both ends of the hallway she stood in. They were covered in draping, cream fabric that rippled as slight blusters swirled around the inside of the ship. '_Very different…_,' was all she thought, remembering the bare bone metal of the Zaban ship.

Her feet started moving. Kagome let her eyes linger downward, watching the tops of her shoes turn left, walk a while, pass some people with white boots like most of the reporters in Sjevernasud, and turn a few more times. She looked up; somehow she knew this was not the right hallway to walk down to get to her bed. Kagome let her head turn down to the ground and her feet led the way again, and after another unknown amount of time she heard Hanzel's voice from an open door in front of her. She looked up; the fabric was indigo here for some reason. Sota jumped on a bed in the far corner of this room she found herself in. Her mother spoke broken English to Hanzel, who again tried to say too much too fast. Sango was there, saying something to them… or was she talking to Kagome.

"Please, I'm tired," Kagome said, not sure who to. She walked over to an orange wicker weave chair in a different corner of the small room, closed her eyes, dropped her head into her hands, and waited.

Silence brought peace. Kagome looked up, feeling present. The only light in the room came from a small, cream colored lamp with a lamp shade that looked like a bell. Something twinged in Kagome's mind and she turned her attention away. Sota was asleep in the same bed he was jumping on earlier, snoring next to her mother. Ji-Chan had somehow been moved into his bed too. Kagome looked over at the bed next to her, indigo like the wall fabric in much of the rest of the ship. She put out her hand and felt it; like well worn out canvas draped over a thin water mattress. Kagome cringed, but a moment later didn't know why. '_What is wrong with me…?'_ she asked herself with no intention to answer. She pushed herself out of the chair, stretched a bit, and watched her arms and hands change her out of her day clothes and into the white slip dress that was provided for her. Her hands guided her into the bed, and then Kagome stared at the ceiling.

It was blue.

It didn't look like it was made of wood. Maybe foam?

The bed wasn't very warm.

There was the ceiling again.

Face on pillow = very hard to breath.

Kagome rolled over to face the wall the bed was placed up against. Tonight sleep was not a butterfly barely escaping the reach of her weary souls' net; no, tonight sleep was way out in the stars. She rolled her eyes wearily before pressing her forehead against the wall, which she then realized was also made of fabric and not at all stable. She shimmied back into the middle of the bed quickly, imagining herself rolling off the bed in her sleep and tumbling down into the underbelly of the ship. She threw the large pillow off the bed in an effort to solidify her place in the middle of the fluid mattress, but immediately regretted it: that pillow was really warm…

For a moment Kagome was aware she was dreaming. She wondered how that had happened, but then the dream took her again. She was in a gray car, which was driving itself through a city with great, tall buildings of glass, steel, and concrete. Trees lined the street, and there were benches and small shop entrances, but no people. No cars. No bicycles. Looking out at the horizon presented by the front windshield, it was a cloudy day, close to rain.

Something darted by in the shadows beyond the car. Kagome scooted over to the side of the car to look out the window, maybe get a better sight at what life was like out there. She leaned on the door, peering into the shadowy alley bared behind a chain-link fence. It looked like a garbage can was on fire farther back.

For some reason she felt she had to open the door and investigate. It opened with a thunk, and Kagome hesitated. Nothing changed outside on the empty street. Kagome carefully opened the door and stepped onto the low sidewalk, hearing a clack beneath her. She looked down: she was wearing heels, and they seemed to keep changing color.

Kagome looked up and there were people. Everywhere. But they weren't moving. They're skin was pale and gray, like the car that took her here, but no was gone. They were dressed bizarrely, one in a fluorescent blue robe and turban while another wore only a long, red and green scarf, and another had a giant copper ring going through her nose and cheek, and—

They turned their heads towards her, sharply. Kagome froze. She didn't dare move, but her heart started galloping, and her eyes whirled trying to watch all of the people. Slowly, each gray skinned, strangely colored person began raising one of their arms above their heads, and even in the faintness of the cloudy day she could see the butcher's knives, the saws, the axes, the screwdrivers and machetes. Her mouth opened barely to try to scream, but she wouldn't dare.

A bang in the corridor with the fire trash can, sounding like an explosion mixed with falling pots and pans, echoed in the street. Before she could stop herself she threw her head around to see what happened and then froze again. But no one else moved. Or it seemed like that for a moment; after a quick sweep she realized all of the people were staring at the corridor as well. It was then she realized they were faceless.

Another explosion in the corridor. But nothing moved in there, or out on the street. A third explosion, and a gray man in flaming clothes charged out from behind a wall at the far end of the alley, roaring like someone screaming with duct tape stretched over his mouth. He ravaged forward, and for a moment Kagome saw herself in his eyes, dressed like a normal woman on a rainy day, but all this mad could think of was _…food!_

She was herself again, and the man slammed into the chain link, clawing and snarling, blood spurting out where he broke his fingers that caught in the fence. He didn't care. He started climbing.

A woman in the far end of the alley threw her other hand in the air, and let out an explosion sound of pots and pans, and she rushed the fence too. Then another man in the alley. A child in the alley. It was almost at the street. Kagome turned and ran.

She tried to kick off her heels, but they seemed glued to her feet - - bad luck considering she had never learned to walk in heels let alone run in them. She dodged raised blades and weapons, but no one moved. But then she heard an explosion behind her, beyond the fence, and the grunts of other gray people who had been knocked out of the way of the things that pursued her, and the disturbed people screamed their explosions only moments after.

_RUN RUN RUN!_ She screamed in her lungs but not in her throat. _MAKE IT TO THAT CORNER! DODGE THAT KNIFE! MAKE IT TO THAT CORNER! I'M TRIPPING!- NO DON'T FALL INTO THEM, DON'T DISTURB THEM! GO GO GO, GET TO THE CORNER, JUST GET TO THE CORNDER, GO, RUN!_

It had become a hoard behind her, and it was gaining numbers and gaining on her. A splatter of blood hit her cheek. One second and two evasions later she was at the corner, and her lungs screamed out high and clear,

"SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

Instantly there was a taxi in front of her and its door swung open. She threw herself inside and closed the door, locking it right as the bloody, gray hands started pounding on the window.

"Where to, miss?" She heard from the front seat of the car.

"Home, take me home!" Kagome screamed, still watching the horror outside her window. She turned up to the cabby, but it was her father, expressionless. He held a gun in his hand. She could see down the barrel.

BANG!

Kagome clamped her teeth together as she screamed. Her shaking hands found the sheets of the bed and she threw them over her mouth, trying to stop the sound. She covered her nose too and rattled with her warbling scream. Her body rocked back and forth and wetness appeared at the edges of her eyes and soon after slipped down her face. She rocked for ages. She shook for ages. There would be no more sleeping tonight.

* * *

"Hey… you don't look so good," Sango said worriedly. She sat in the sunny starboard lounge in a plush, red sofa, just across from Kagome who sat with an unopened atlas in her lap.

"Well, that comment sure brightened up my day, " Kagome replied caustically, only giving her friend and passing glance before staring out the window again. White, sparkling clouds tumbled on beneath the ship.

"I'm mean you don't look like you're feeling very well. Are you okay?"

"Yeah…," Kagome sighed. "I didn't sleep well last night, that's all."

"Really? Is there something wrong?" Sango asked. She was interrupted by Ms. Higurashi and Miroku arriving with a tray of food for lunch. It looked like sandwiches: golden, fluffy bread without crusts with a mix of something red, maroon, marmalade yellow, white, and all around gooey in the middle. A medley of orange and purple carrots sliced length-wise lined either side of the tray, along with a small silver bowl of something creamy white and another bowl cuboidal looking grapes.

"Hm?" Miroku raised his eyebrows at Sango carefully, and then at Kagome curiously. Kagome shook her head and waved on the food. Miroku was about to take a seat next to Sango until a death glare informed him that Kagome's sofa was the much safer option.

"What… you have doing?" Ms. Higurashi asked her daughter painfully. She scrunched up her face for a moment. "No. What have _you_ doing, Kagome?"

Kagome smiled, watching Miroku and Sango dodge each other's hands as they both reached for one of the many sandwich halves. "I have _been_ reading this—"

"Aaah! What have you _been_ doing?" Ms. Higurashi repeated in a frustrated huff.

Kagome smiled again and shook her head to reassure her mother. "I have been reading this book, an atlas."

"At-lass…" Ms. Higurashi replied, picking up a handful of diamond grapes. "What is…?"

"A book with a lot of maps," Kagome replied, helping her mother recall the meaning of each set of words while she gathered some food for herself as well. After a few minutes of going over the new vocabulary of Map, Page, Continent, City, and Smart-Ass (when Ms. Higurashi asked to understand what Sango called Miroku and why Kagome was laughing), her mother waved on her daughter to let her study her new words in singularly.

"So what else have you learned about Ko and the Merica's?" Miroku asked Kagome.

"Honestly, at this point I don't even know," Kagome said, picking up one of her sandwich pieces. "I keep trying to read the sections about one hundred years ago, but I get lost in them. I keep reading the same sentence over and over again until I just admit I can't take any more."

Miroku nodded. "Sounds like you're brain has enough stuff to process already and it is telling you not to push it any more."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Sure, maybe, but this is important. I need to know more about the place I'm going to be living. I don't want to show up there and make some giant faux pas with the first person I meet… oh, you don't know that term do you?"

Miroku stared at Kagome, and then Sango, and then Kagome. "Uh… fowl paw?"

"Can you explain it please?" Kagome asked Sango wearily. She then surrendered into her sandwich, finding the gel inside insanely tart at times and bitter at others, and not helped by the presence of large fruit seeds. The grapes slid into her mouth in a slippery, unreal way that made Kagome avoid them all together, eventually resigning herself to munch on the orange carrot slices.

"Okay, so it's a social misstep," Miroku repeated. "Well, Kagome, you don't have to worry about that too much. The people of Ko are very understanding, you don't have to go in there an expert on the region."

Kagome raised an eyebrow at him. She slid down in her seat on the couch, part of a carrot still in her mouth. "I am very wary of such an essentializing statement."

"Wha…?" Miroku replied.

Kagome groaned. "Just read Edward Said or something… Oh, right, you can't… god dammit."

Miroku looked across the table at Sango. "Is… uh… Do I want to know what she's talking about?"

Sango was quiet a moment, as if deciding whether or not to breath fire. Eventually she said, "I'm not even sure I know what she's talking about."

Kagome's head slunk. "A masterpiece of anthropological understanding, down the drain…"

"Yeah, I REALLY don't know what she's talking about…" Sango said, but without any lilt of sharpness.

Kagome sighed again, but didn't bother answering. She was the only person who knew about Edward Said, the person who called out anthropologists around the world - well, Earth - in the 1960's and 1970's on their inherent discrimination when they were investigating the many ways people lived around the planet. '_I'm probably also the only person who knows International Relations theory, or the old economic theories, or the history behind the creation of calculus… So everything I've ever been trained in or learned is pretty much useless now…_'

Kagome didn't take part in the ensuing discussion at the lunch table, only helping her mother translate choice terms and words when she couldn't figure it out on her own. Kagome felt herself twist up in guilt at her voluntary exclusion, but there was some part of herself that felt justified in her behavior. She was angry and upset, and did any of these other people notice? Nope. They were all just… just…

'_Hold on…,' _Kagome said to herself quietly as the sun began to set on the first day in this loon to Dulas. '_Sango DID ask me if I was okay earlier… They are noticing that I'm upset and angry, but they just don't know why…'_

At that point Kagome was walking around again. She had found a trap door in one of the hallways, and discovered it led down to a panoramic vantage point surrounded by glass. There were no seats, only a wooden floor and steel support beams, but Kagome didn't mind. She felt much more at peace down here than in the plush, claustrophobic ship above her. Storms raged in pockets beneath her feet, throwing gallons of water into the silver-laden sea thousands of meters below, which reflected the reddening of the sky as another night drew in.

The hatch above her creaked and flipped open. Kagome looked over her shoulder from her place on the floor to see who it was, and a moment later she watched a white haired demon man thing fall to the floor gracefully, clad in a black and mustard yellow jacket. It had the same Kimono/military jacket feel as the one she saw him in when they first met.

Inuyasha's head snapped up, his eyes catching hers. He stood up slowly and crossed his arms. "Didn't know this place was occupied."

"It's not, not really," Kagome said calmly. "Unless you think humans are too far beneath you or some… ugh, there I go _again!_ Why am I so nasty today?...Sorry."

Kagome didn't wait to watch his reaction. She simply turned her head back so her chin rested on her knees, and her eyes took in the windy sky beyond her.

Inuyasha frowned for a moment, then he stared at the ground. His eyes flitted back up to her, but she still wasn't looking at him. "Am I, uh… do you want to be alone."

He watched her give half a smile. "I don't know."

Inuyasha pressed his lips together. He looked out the glass to the same, watery prospect she was focused on. "So what are you doing in here?"

"… I don't know that either," she said. He stood there awkwardly for a few more moments before she spoke again. "I… I just don't know what I'm doing at all… I studied international relations and anthropology and so many other things, and no one seems to know what those are… I never would have said it, but I think I was arrogant enough to think of myself as an expert in those things. And now…"

She smiled ironically. "You know, Inuyasha, it seems like each time you find me I'm just not in a very presentable state. That first time I blew up at you, and then I was terrified in front of Kagura, and then the other day when I was walking around, and now…" She sighed again.

Inuyasha stared at her for a moment, He sniffed, stepped forward a bit towards the glass, and sat down. "So…uh… what were sunsets like on your planet?"

Kagome smiled slightly. "They were beautiful, just like this, though maybe not as much red. There were more colors, yellow, orange, peach, rose… even green sometimes if you looked closely enough."

Inuyasha made a sound of blunt understanding. "The sunsets here vary from place to place. When you're close to the sea, they're… well, they're really red, but the farther inland you go the less red they are… I don't know if the sunsets over Polis are like what you know, but, well, maybe they are…"

She didn't say anything for a while, though his nose picked up the salty scent of tears.

"What about you?" Kagome asked quietly. "What are sunsets like in the desert?"

"Ahh, well," Inuyasha said, leaning back so he was resting on his elbows. "They're not like this, not at all. When the sun starts to go down, the sky goes pale blue for a while, then it turns kinda… pinkish I guess. Then, right when the sun is about to go beneath the horizon, all the air close to the sun goes purple and starts sparkling because of all the sand in the air."

Kagome smiled, not that Inuyasha could see it. "That sounds beautiful… I wonder why the sunset in Sjevernasud wasn't like that…?"

"Their desert has the wrong kind of sand. It's got a lot of salt in it, I think. The Igutoni desert has a lot of silver instead, and it reacts with the light differently."

Kagome nodded. "There is a lot of silver on this planet, for me anyway. It was really rare where we came from, a luxury."

Inuyasha scoffed. "What? Silver? A luxury? C'mon, its shiny and crap but next to that its about as valuable as, I don't know, water or something."

"I don't know, water is pretty important at the end of the day," Kagome said. "Without it we'd all die… well, I only think so. I don't know how _half_ demons work."

Inuyasha hesitated a moment. "If I don't eat or drink eventually I'd die too, it'd just take a lot longer for me than for you."

Kagome nodded again, and said nothing. Inuyasha waited a while, but eventually sighed brazenly. "You're being boring."

"So sorry. I don't think that a terrible offense though." She replied lightly.

Inuyasha watched her again, frowning deeply. "And you're still weird… and a nerd."

"And you're still a Prince. Tell me something I don't know," She said with a shrug.

"You're a nerd. Aren't they supposed to know everything?"

"Haven't you met a guy nerd who didn't know what to say to a girl he liked?" Kagome replied.

Inuyasha crossed his arms again.

Kagome smiled, her eyes still focused on the ocean. "Ha ha, you know I'm right."

"Wha-? I never said that!"

"Yes you did. Body language, dog boy. You crossed your arms," She waved her hands on either side of her head. "Peripheral vision is a pretty cool thing, hunh?"

Inuyasha scoffed again, but stayed put. Kagome continued to say nothing. He caught himself looking her hair and wondering why she wasn't running away from him like most other humans. Even the friend of hers, Sano or Sago or something, shied away from him ever since the Kagura accident. But this girl wasn't moving. She was just staring outside…

"So silver was a luxury for you, eh?"

She sighed before answering. "Yup. And gold, and a lot of other things. I never really paid attention to it though."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I mean silver is transitory. All luxuries are transitory. It's only valuable because we humans - - which I'm using in a way that includes you Inuyasha, so don't even pick at that point - - its only valuable because we make it so. Yes, it was rare where I came from. But salt was very common, so it wasn't thought to be that important. But there were places called Gujarat and Mali where salt was VERY important because people needed to replenish the salt they had in their bodies. Gujarat and Mali are in the desert, and people sweat a lot and get dehydrated, so they needed a lot of salt. In ancient times on earth, salt was just as valuable as gold… though is gold valuable here?"

"Yeah, it's a luxury here too," Inuyasha replied quickly.

"Okay, well… what I mean to say is that I don't really pay attention to things just because they are 'luxurious'… everything is beautiful in its own way, " She smiled. "And if something is important, it will reveal itself as such, no need for me to covet something as unnecessary as a shiny, malleable metal."

Inuyasha stared at her carefully. Then, for the first time, she looked directly into his eyes, and in the sunset light he realized her eyes weren't brown. Most of her irises were dark brown, but there were several large, flakes of dark, dark blue.

"You're _really_ weird," he eventually said. Kagome dropped her head into her lap, then waving her hand at him.

"Go do Prince stuff, Inuyasha,"

He let out a puff of air, but stood up, stealing another glance at Kagome before turning and heading for the ladder. He walked over, but paused there a moment.

"Hey… thanks, by the way,"

Kagome turned to him, clearly confused.

"For speaking like a normal human. You didn't use demon tongue."

Inuyasha had already hopped up into the ship and slammed the trap door shut before Kagome could scream. "ITS JAPANESE!"

* * *

Kagome took hold of her grandfather's wheel chair, bracing herself for the opening of the main entry bay doors. There were several loud clangs, the doors shuttered, and they started rolling up. Kagome peered through the light beyond the doors, her eyes bleary from two more nights without much rest.

For a moment her nightmare was real. People coming at her with one arm above their head, screaming in strange outfits. But then she realized they were microphones, not knives, and they reporters instead of fashionista zombies.

"GIVE US A PICTURE FOR—"

"OUTTA MY WAY YOU DAMN FU—"

"WHATS THE HARDEST THING ABOUT—"

"SHOULD ZABA DO MORE TO—"

"What the hell!" Sango screamed in front of Kagome, pushing the hoard of people off of her. They pushed harder and harder in, knocking Sango to the ground and swallowing Miroku somewhere in the madness. Kagome saw one of them punch another reporter, who then tried to punch the woman back just knock Hanzel squarely in the Jaw.

"Kagome we're in hell," Ms. Higurashi said to her daughter with rising decibel as the reporters came ever closer.

Kagome could hardly understand it. At least the Zabans had some self-restraint! What the hell was wrong with these people! She Sango pop up for a moment when a duo of reporters grabbed her, one grabbing her wrist and twisting it behind her while the other turned on a camera-hat on his head and started yelling questions at her, grabbing her jaw to elicit responses.

"THAT'S IT!" Kagome screamed, not that anyone heard her. "JI-CHAN, HOLD ON TIGHT! MOM, SOTA, GET BEHIND ME!"

With Ms. Higurashi and Sota dodging out of the way of a reporter who had herself chucked over the crowd only to land nose first on the bay ramp, they got behind Kagome who pulled herself back up to the ramp. She took a deep breath in, and screaming at the top of her lungs,

"DUKE TO KUTABARE!"

(***a rough translation would be, "Get out of the mother fucking way and go die")

Only a few reporters had the wherewithal to look up in time to see the bullet-train wheel chair, and the wide-eyed old man upon it, zoom down the ramp and plow into them, knocking over and rolling over some while others flew over the top like water hitting the windshield of a sports car operated by one way too caffeinated man-boy with something to prove. With Kagome cursing at them all with everything she knew in 'demon tongue' she managed to punch the duo reporters abducting Sango while her mother and Sota grabbed Hanzel, and they collectively shoved and steam-rolled their way through the crowd and, once through, bolted down the huge hall of the airport to find the train station connection. As they turned a corner a figure in a red, kimono-military jacket jumped down in front of them.

"D'you forget this?" He asked, plopping a barely conscious Miroku down onto Ji-Chan's lap.

"No! I just-!"

"Don't talk, run!" Sango screamed. The Texa Merican reporters were up and after them.

With Inuyasha leading the way, the troupe ran at full speed and full volume through the complex, running over any man in an obnoxiously huge, leather hat or woman in poofy, pastel dresses that got in their way, the hoard of reporters desperate for _THE_ story on the Aliens arriving in Dulas screaming after them. After Kagome noticed that she had passed the same statue did she realize Inuyasha was leading them in circles, having a ball at the sight.

"DAMMIT INUYASHA, TAKE US TO THE TRAIN STATION!"

"Kagome! Kagome Higurashi, over here!" She heard to her left. Kagome stopped dead when she saw a somewhat trampled looking Kaede motioning her over towards another side hall. A moment later everyone else ran into Kagome and knocked the wind out of her.

"This way to the trains, hurry!" Kaede yelled, turning and hobbling down the hall as fast as she could. Hanzel took over the reins of the train and pushed onwards, with Miroku springing to his feet and getting off the front of the beast.

Kagome watched them run on, picking up Kaede in the wheel chair and screaming as they hurtled down the hall, completely unaware that Kagome couldn't breath or stand, and that the hoard was moments away. Just as she started to be able to make out the reporters' screamed questions she felt herself scooped up by the back of her pants and suddenly she was flying. She opened her eyes and realized she wasn't flying actually, but rather floating in the airtime Inuyasha had as he bounded through the airport with her held carefully in his arms. She tried to wheeze a statement to him, but at that moment he landed and bounded again, and the sudden impact of gravity stole away the little air she'd managed to collect since being squished.

It didn't matter much – in a moment Kagome heard a piercing whizz she used to hear from old videos of trains circa 1950, only this one was right in front of her. After another moment the world was dark and cool, and she heard Inuyasha yell, "Shut the door already!"

CLANG THUD THUD THUD-D-D-D. Kagome could only hear the bodies of numerous reporters slamming into the side of the train, though after a moment she felt unceremoniously dropped to the ground. Sango found her a second later.

"Are you okay Kagome?"

"I… good… air… please…"

Sango helped her to her feet. "You weren't kidding about needing training for reporters, that was horrible! What the hell is wrong with these people, they were like a bunch of barbarians swarming… well, swarming something to kill it!"

"Those… were not… the kind of… reporter… I am used… to…" Kagome managed out, handing the ticket taker her ticket before being hobbled into the entry cabin of the train.

Texa Merican travelers surrounded the 'Aliens' the moment they took their seats.

"Nice to meet ya, I'm-"

"Hey, git outta my way you-"

"Well I guess y'all met our journalists out ther-"

"So why don't you have green skin or third eyes or—"

"ALL OF YOU, **BACK. OFF.**" Sango yelled, standing on top of a table. "Go back to your seats and leave us alone or I will force you to go back to your seats and stay there for a very long time!"

"Uh, miss! Miss! Off o'the table, you can't stand there." A blonde, prim looking train assistant called from the end of the car, shaking her finger at the irate Japanese-Floridian.

"I will stand here and kick your lips off if these people don't figure out to leave us alone!"

"Look here you little—"

"Heheh, she's a fiery one aint—"

It did no good. The prim woman stood at the back of the crowd waving contemptly as the crowd continued to press in around Sango towards the other earthlings. Even the starting kick of train did nothing. From her high perch Sango looked around in confusion, and finally kicked a man in the face to prove her point.

The man cursed and fell back, and there were indignant cries, but after a second people started pushing in even harder, yelling at Sango and at the others. She started kicking and punching wherever she could, but they kept coming again and again.

Inuyasha appeared in the far doorway for a moment, leaped, and he landed next to Sango far too quickly for her interpretation of physics. He leaned down to look into the faces of the people at the front of the crowd, and with a smirk said clearly, "Anatagata wa meiwakudesu."

"DEMON!" some woman screeched. Sango, Kagome, Miroku and the others watched the group of Texa Mericans fly away from them terrified, even two large men who looked like they'd seen long hours in the gym.

Sango looked over at the half-demon. "We need to keep you around us more often."

Inuyasha made a light scoffing noise, hopped off the table, and found a place to sit in the wooden booth across the way from the other aliens.

Kagome began wishing Inuyasha hadn't gotten the aggressively curious Texa Mericans to wet themselves half an hour into the train ride to Polis, as she realized that an eleven-hour train ride was a very different experience than a two day trip in a balloon. At regular three-hour intervals there were chances to buy snacks, but there was no real food. People were not allowed to move between their cabins without official consent, and Kagome soon realized that the prim woman they encountered earlier was the kind to hold a grudge. Eventually she got around to calculating the exact time difference between Polis and Prialata with Miroku; about 8 hours. She also started going over time conversions between Beji and Earth, but after several attempts to equate months to months and days to weeks, each one failing when the duo realized yet ANOTHER iota of time that they measured differently, Kagome gave it up. It was moving from spring into summer in Polis, which according to Miroku was a bit more pronounced than what one would expect on Earth.

Each food break came and went without much enthusiasm in the car. The other passengers were scared to even pass the half demon lest he grabbed them and ate them for his snack (Kagome imagined him snatching them like a frog and had to squelch her laughter), and only Sota had enough energy to have bare a happy smile. Even Hanzel couldn't muster it for the kid. After several hours Kagome got up from her place and started playing pretend with her younger brother, acting as a rocket scientist while we was a space-robot-hero thing which she didn't wholly understand. '_He's almost too old to be able to do this game as well as he used to," _Kagome though. '_I can at least try to get it._"

That lasted an hour until the last food break, and then Sota's energy burst like a balloon. Kagome worked him through his tired crankiness as the sun set over the many, smoky teal hills of the Ko countryside, draping her arm over his shoulders as she fought sleep in their booth.

Darkness reigned outside the train as Kaede hobbled down the main aisle, the glum flicker of ancient incandescent bulbs above her head acting as her only light. She said down in the same booth as Ms. Higurashi, and gave a wrinkled smile.

"How arr yu?" Ms. Higurashi pushed out of her tired lips.

Kaede smiled with more force and nodded again. Ms. Higurashi smiled politely in return, and looked back out the window. "Is storm?"

"Yes, that is a storm," Kaede replied, though she then looked down at the table.

"^^ It must be hard for you to learn a new way of talking."

Ms. Higurashi snapped her eyes on Kaede's as her mouth dropped. "_You know Japanese! This entire time!"_

"Oh, well, it is called Demon tongue, and I know enough. There was once a time that I had to talk with demons regularly, so I was given royal permission to learn the peasant form of the language."

Ms. Higurashi smiled. "I see… what you are speaking right now is known as the most informal form of Japanese… but I am glad that I can talk to you… You're name is Kaede, correct?"

"Yes, I am. And you are Kagome's mother, but she never told me your name."

"I am Miwa, Kaede," Ms. Higurashi replied. She gave a small head bob towards the older woman, and then carefully set her hands on the splintery, wooden table before them.

"It looks like there is something on your mind, Miwa. I assure you that we are very close to Polis now, and we have made all the necessary arrangements for you to start finding a new life there."

Miwa continued to look at her hands. "Thank you… though that is not what is on my mind."

"So then, what is?"

"…how do you know the man with white hair? The Half-demon?"

Kaede leaned back in her bench. "How do I know Inuyasha… well that is quite a story indeed. Let's suffice it to say that many years ago I knew Inuyasha's mother. She was a prodigy Daughter at the Mother's Compound in Polis. After she gave birth to him, she was determined to ensure that he gained his education in the Mother's schools instead of the demon Emprists, so she sent for me and I became his teacher up until her death."

Miwa nodded once, noting that the young man they spoke of was in the farthest corner of the car, arms crossed and somewhere between awake and sleep. "He seems like he has had a very rough life."

Kaede raised her eyebrows. "What makes you say that?"

Miwa sighed. "His eyes, and how he carries himself. He is like Kagome. They walk very lightly, very quietly. I expect they both learned that when they were young so that someone violent in their lives' didn't hear them walking around… Kagome's father was certainly… like that."

Kaede frowned. "Do you feel comfortable telling me the history you and your daughter have faced?"

Miwa held back for a little bit, but eventually she shared with Kaede her decision to marry during college, and how soon she realized her mistake. She thought that maybe children would make Tokoku, her husband, calm his temper and his ambitions, maybe turn him back into the gentleman he had been when they had first met. But it soon became clear that he was not going to change, and that he started yelling and beating her and the children, though Sota was spared for the most part as he was a son. But ironically that stubborn, strong nature was given to Kagome, who started fighting back in early adolescence, and became the family's guard against Miwa's husband. By the time he left for Beji, Ms. Higurashi hadn't even spoken with him for a year, and was almost brave enough to send divorce papers head of her instead of going along with his colonization plan.  
"But… I couldn't do it," Miwa said softly, staring out the window sadly. "I wish I had my daughter's will sometimes… But, you see, for the time I was in college I studied environmental sciences. I knew that Earth was dying. I knew that Japan was going to be flooded in ten years if we stayed, as would many other places on Earth. So Kagome and I decided that we would take our chances here on Ibeji - - oh, I mean Beji, I haven't gotten used to that name yet."

Kaede nodded very slowly. "…I believe you are more courageous than you are aware of, Ms. Miwa."

Ms. Higurashi expressed slight shock on her face, but it smoothed into a kind smile. "Thank you Kaede, though… Kagome deserves most of the praise. Like I said, she grew up so quickly to take on the roles neither I or my husband could take on. And you can see the weight of that responsibility in her eyes… she is aging so fast. It's all I can do to get her to stop thinking about long-term goals and start thinking about herself. The short, the medium, and the long-term thinking… is all important. … I wish I had done things differently with her, and with Sota, but I was always so dependent on Takoku for money… how could I leave him and let them starve? And how could I take them away from their family?"

"You don't have to explain to me, Miwa, life is complicated, and what is Morally right has to be balanced by what is possible, what is practical…," Kaede replied. "With your husband at least you had a home, money, and solitude for the most part. If you left him, you would have completely removed him from the situation, but you would have taken everything else from your kids and yourself. It would have been a proud act, and a foolish one."

"…thank you for saying… that. Sometimes I think Kagome blames me for everything that happened to us - -"

"We don't know for certain what anyone is thinking, but from what I've caught on to she makes an extra effort to think deeply about what makes people act. Don't worry about that."

Miwa Higurashi shrugged with a light lift of an eyebrow. "That she does. I don't know how, but she does…"

Kaede remained quiet, smiling gently as she looked out the dark window.

"Kaede, I think that boy and my daughter have some kind of shared future together. Don't ask me how I know this, but I feel that kitsune have tied their paths together somehow."

Kaede looked at Ms. Higurashi openly. "Kitsune?"

Ms. Higurashi nodded. "They are fox spirits from our homeland. They are… they are many things. But one thing they do is they serve as messages for Inari, and act on Inari's behalf to see that the… that the fabric of society stays properly woven together. And I think she has woven that boy with the white hair into my daughter's life."

Kaede nodded once and turned her attention back to the outside. "The daughters of water would say that their lives' rivers are dancing towards confluence."

Miwa blinked. "Are you sure you only learned 'peasant' Japanese? That was a very sophisticated sentence."

Kaede laughed wheezily. "Oh, I learned a lot from Inuyasha that the other's wouldn't teach me, hahaha!"

Thunder rumbled once beyond the train, and then again, and twice more following.

"Oh dear, a storm…" Miwa said, looking over to see Kagome beginning to rouse from the sound.

"Polis has many storms, but… have you ever heard of Luanda grasses?" Kaede asked.

"No, not at all."

"They are… actually, wake your daughter and son, and your father in law if you can. You should see this, we are only a little while outside of the city. Bring them to the window."

Miwa Higurashi got up and gripped her daughter's hand, waking her immediately. Kagome carried Sota with her over to the windows Kaede had pointed to, and she noticed that some of the few other passengers who had managed to stay awake this late were doing the same. "What are we watching mom?"

"Something about grasses, I've been told."

Lightning struck a treeless hill in the distance, only seen as a silhouette lit by the electricity's radiance. The world outside the train returned to darkness, but slowly Kagome saw light coming from the hill. Then all at once there was a burst of crimson red and violet and white, a swirl, geometric tessellation, bursting out from the lightning's point of impact. It danced and fizzled and set off small, gray fireworks at its edges, and then died into the darkness.

"What in the world was that! Sota, did you see it?"

"Those," Kaede said clearly from the booth right next to the Higurashi's. "Is Luanda grass. It was transplanted from the Luanda mountains to Polis centuries ago, and it grows all over this region of Ko. Something about the ground here and the structure of the plants makes them light up and dance when they're hit by lightning."

Another flash, a earth shattering boom, and Kagome saw they were passing next to a mountain. A moment later lemon and lime light surged down the slope to the train tracks and down the other side of the train - - she and her family ran over to the other side to watch it swirl out and fizzle. Another struck a distant mountain, and Kagome could just make out a design of deep, deep blue race across cliffside. Another hit a hill they were passing, and the train moved out of the right angle for them to see the design.

"This is an amazing way to see the city for the first time," Kaede said, beckoning the Higurashi's back to the other side of the train car. "I cannot imagine a better night to see Polis for the first time. It's almost here… just a few more moments… aaand… welcome to Polis, all of you."

Sango and Hanzel were jerked awake when a bolt of lightning struck a bridge only a milometer away from the train. It was a huge, stone arch with smaller arches in its side, looking like a mix of brick and steel. Golden light shimmered down metal rods on its sides as it soaked up the energy of the strike, illuminating the train's entrance into the city.

Kagome felt her mouth smile. Tears formed in her eyes and she took her mother's hand. "Oh mama… look at it…"

Three rivers flowed into one, huge lake where the water gathered before descending a cascade of rapids to some other part of the country. Ringing the dark lake were tall buildings, glittering brighter than a new box of crayons, illuminated by the bursts of colors of the storm around them. Rain smacked against the window a few times, and suddenly it was a deluge.

"Oh this is wonderful!" Kaede called out above the roar. Sango and Hanzel pressed up against the window next to her.

"What? What is it?" Hanzel asked her without taking his eyes off the spectacle.

"Just wait a moment, any time now- - -oh! There, look, that strike in those hills!"

The others saw lightning hit the hills behind the city on the opposite side of the lake. Right as color started to form in the Luanda grasses rain and wind hit the area, and suddenly the light was travelling, like a painted spirit racing along the hills. It took on other colors, reds and blues, which swirled around the living firework like moons. After a few moments it slowed and faded, but by that time four others had taken its place, and as the train slowed to a stop at a local Polis station the hills were dancing with colors.

"This is amazing!" Sango cried out, putting her hand on Miroku's shoulder so she could get a better view. He glanced up at her once, blushed, and turned back to the show. Kagome stood next to her mother sobbing.

"We did it mama… we found a better place…" she choked out softly.

* * *

_Authors's notes: _

_It'd be easy, I said to myself. Just some character development scenes, I said… the fuck was I thinking?_

_So… I am living and working in South America now! With classes from 9:30 until 6:00 each day (sometimes I am the student and sometimes I am the teacher), finding enough time to get all of my work done and write this has been… straining. But I did it! I finally did it! I've finished this behemoth of a chapter at 3:00 am after writing two essays, but I did it!... Can I sleep now? Please?_

_Also, just gotta say I love your guys comments. It makes me want to write all the more when you all/y'all respond so awesomely. Thanks so much for the reinforcement! ^_^_

_(And you have no idea how much I've been wanting to write that last scene)_


	8. Chapter 6

Key:

When there are English speakers and Japanese speakers present  
"blah blah blah" = English

"* blah blah blah*" = Japanese/ Demon Tongue

When there are only one kind of speaker present  
"blah blah blah" = English or Japanese/Demon Tongue

Also, preview of the next chapter at the end!

* * *

Chapter 6

Kagome didn't remember the drive to her family's apartment. Instead she woke up only able to remember her father stabbing her in the dream world.

She sat up in her bed slowly, drawing her legs in close and wrapping her arms around them. After a moment of shivering she grabbed the top blanket and threw it over her shoulders, then let her tired head fall forward and rest on her knees. Rain lashed at the long, wide window on the right side wall, and flashes of color from distant hills covered in Luanda grasses made her mind swirl.

"…even in paradise it won't stop…"

She made a quiet wish that she could have a certain orange and white fox could wrap its fuzzy body around her and tell her things would be okay. Kagome closed her eyes and waited.

The room remained still.

She woke up on the floor next to the bed, the green blanket she'd pulled out earlier draped over her like a mosquito net. Kagome rubbed her forehead and temples before pushing herself up, shuffling over to one of her suitcases and grabbing some clothes. She wandered into the small bathroom connected to her room to face what looked like a toilet that had been raised to three feet off the ground and tilted forward. She tried to figure out how to sit on it but found herself forced into a lithe squatting position by the porcelain contraption, eventually giving up and working with what it forced her into.

Kagome attempted to brush her hair but found that it was sliding out of her head in clumps, so she nervously braided her hair back and tied it with a length of white medical wrap she found in a bathroom drawer. She rearranged the wrap into a small bow, took a deep breath, and headed into the main room of the apartment.

No one else inhabited the room, but Kagome heard the shower running in the main, communal bathroom. She leaned back against the door of her bedroom and stared at the main room, trying to etch it into her memory and call it home. There were four violet loveseats arranged around a small square table in the center of the room, and over to the right there were two steps leading into a modest sized kitchen. Three oval windows sat above the oven, sink, and counter top there, which was lacquered sky blue. Two nonstick pans with copper handles hung from hooks on the wall, and paper bags filled with towels and non-perishable foods sat on top of the tubular trashcan.

She stepped across a small, white knit rug laid over the pine wood floor and into the kitchen. Kagome's fingers rubbed the dry, brown bags of linens and foodstuffs as her eyes unfocused. After a few moments she moved her other hand to the wall in front of her, painted a solid, forest green. Her fingers felt the tiny bumps in the paint where some parts had dried faster than the others and built up droplets. A little to the left of her hand was the wooden doorframe that surrounded the front door.

The blow drier kicked on in the main bathroom so Kagome knew it was her mother who was awake. '_Of course, who else would it be?_'

She had half of the cans and boxes of food out on the counter and categorized by the time Ms. Higurashi stepped out of the bathroom in one of her outfits from Earth. The two locked eyes and then locked knowing smiles.

"You didn't sleep much, did you dear?" Ms. Higurashi asked.

"…Nope. You didn't either?"

Miwa walked across the room to her daughter. "Not exactly. I couldn't stop thinking about all this food out here in the kitchen, wondering about what I should cook today."

_'Well, at least she isn't having nightmares too…_' Kagome thought to herself with a smile. "Mama, why didn't you ever become a cook in a restaurant or something?"

Ms. Higurashi picked up another paper bag and started unloading future ingredients onto the counter. "Oh I don't know… My parents always wanted something more for me than that. They wanted me to have a good clerk or assistant position before getting married and then devoting my life to my kids. So I studied environmental sciences. That's just how things were back then."

Kagome had been expecting a response involving her father, not her grandparents. This kind of mother-daughter talk was itself not new, but the topic was a trail unblazed.

"So… they both really pushed that on you? And that's why you wound up getting involved with dad how you did?"

"Yes, I believe so…" Ms. Higurashi said. She was quiet for a few moments as she finished removing a box of a dried cereal/grain/pasta neither one of them could identify. " It's kind of funny, really. I never felt like I really lived until I started living with Takoku. He wasn't so harsh at first, that developed later, and I still don't really know why. But he was the one who convinced me to start thinking on my own, to break with tradition…,"

"Of course, then I married him, dropped my job and started taking care of you guys, so I guess my break with tradition wasn't very deep," Ms. Higurashi laughed, though Kagome saw a hint of sadness in her eyes, just for a moment. "But still… I've always loved cooking, dear, no matter who it was for. Actually, I had this code system for the house: When Sota needed a 'talking to', I'd make fried daikon cakes with picked radish, and then Takoku would know."

Kagome raised an eyebrow. "That's Sota's favorite dish… why'd you choose-"

"I'd make that because daikon looks dirty on the outside, but its pure white on the inside, and tastes best when you harvest it a bit when it's a little young. I'd often say that Sota was always getting himself into dirt at school, but he has a good heart, if a bit naïve. And pickled radish is a bit spicy, so it meant he only needed a talking to. If I made kimchi with the fried cakes, that meant Sota had, well… that he had really gotten himself into trouble!

"And I think it became his favorite dish on accident; I started cooking it that way long before I knew his definite preferences. Anyway, at least he'd get some good food before facing your father."

Kagome chuckled a bit. All of the food was stacked out on the counter top like a miniature city. Kagome picked up the bag of linens and towels while her mother decided where to put things in the cupboards.

"What else did you have in this culinary code, mom? Was there anything in there for me like for Sota?"

Kagome arranged the cloth goods on the top of one of the loveseats, so all she could hear was her mother making a loud thinking sound behind her. "For you it was always tomatoes, green tomatoes. And the cue that you had gotten into trouble was if I made them in tempura."

Kagome grimaced as she recalled how often in the last several years the family had eaten green tomato tempura.

"Anything else…?" Kagome asked carefully.

"Oh, there is a long list of things… strawberry daifuku was what I made when I felt Takoku was being cold and ignoring me, and steamed cabbage with pork and rice was what I made when I felt we were all really happy. In his bento I'd often roll different ingredients into his tamagoyaki to remind him of different thinks, like garlic and green onion if I needed to get some more grocery money, or cooked rice when I wanted him to come home after work instead of going out drinking with his coworkers… things like that…,"

"How did we even get going on this topic?" Ms. Higurashi asked.

"Uh… not sure." Kagome replied. The two laughed a bit while chatting about where to put different things in their apartment, effectively pushing the dark clouds of Kagome's night out of her mind. By the time Sota had wheeled Ji-Chan into the main room there was a pot of make-shift miso simmering, eggs with sugar and white vinegar sizzling in the skillet , and Kagome was doing her best to decipher the instructions on the back of the mystery cereal/grain/pasta box.

Breakfast passed calmly aside from Sota's repeated inquiry, "What are we going to do today?" No one knew. Ms. Higurashi mentioned that Kaede was planning on sending someone over to help get the Higurashi family situated, but by the time the two women of the house finished washing and drying the dishes still no one had come. Kagome moved on to wondering about what exactly was included in 'getting situated' when there was a loud rap at the door. She jumped and slammed her hand over her chest, took a moment to shake her head into composure, and opened the door.

Kaede, with her long graying hair and miko-esque attire, was easy to recognize. The other woman was not. She was very tall and young, with skin the color of caramel-chocolate and a short, brownish-blonde afro. The woman smiled broadly, creasing up on the sides of her eyes and making her round glasses rise and catch the sunlight.

"Good morning Kagome, may we enter?" Kaede eventually asked. Kagome nodded and stepped aside, exchanging '"thank you's" and "no problem's" while watching the woman duck her head to walk inside.

"Oh, hello Ms. Kaede!" Ms. Higurashi said as she walked into the main room after putting food away into the pantry. "How are you?...*Did I say that right, Kagome?*"

"Yes, you said that perfectly, mama." Kagome replied, but she noted that the new woman tensed for a only a moment before her wide smile returned. "Kaede… um, do you prefer Kaede or Ms. Kaede?"

"Whichever one you prefer," She replied, taking a huff and a seat on the purple cushions.

"Ah, well," Kagome continued. "Have you explained to… sorry, I don't know your name, but has it been explained to you that we are not actually demons? We just speak another language?"

The woman looked a little surprised that a question was directed straight to her, but her smile softened. "My name is Willow, and you don't have to worry about that," she said in an odd accent, as if the end of each word was trying to fade away into the clouds. "What you said just now sounds like demon tongue, but Kaede explained that, for all of you, there is, uh… what is that? That word, yeah?"

"Languages," Kaede offered.

"Oh, yes yes, yes lang… lang-wajes. More than one tongue. Yes, yeah, I understand that, no need to worry!"

Aside from her odd accent, Kagome felt completely at home with this Willow person. Her movements flowed gracefully, especially the few times she reached up, took hold of her glasses by the rim and readjusted their place on her face. And there was nothing hidden within her: her smile now was full, her eyes open wide and kind. She reminded Kagome of the monks and nuns she knew back home.

Something panged inside Kagome's ribcage, like her lungs were grabbing onto her throat to try to keep her from crying. It was the thought of the monks and nuns, and home. '_No, this is my new home, I have to be here, in this moment, I have to focus…_'

Kagome tuned back in to the conversation starting up in the living room. Willow was a Niece, a Daughter-in-training of one of the Daughters of Mothers religion. Ms. Higurashi pulled out the stone Clarence device as Kaede explained that she was working with the Ko government to secure jobs for Sango, Hazel, and Ms. Higurashi, ideally all together.

"What about me?" Kagome asked, trying to get comfortable in her new seat upon one of the loveseats.

Willow cocked her head slightly with wide eyes while Kaede sighed. The old woman turned to the younger one. "Willow, might you explain?"

"Yeah, yes yes. We know that you have encountered great training in the political arts and are quite knowledgeable about the functions of the universe. That is how your talents were explained to me, they were. The daughters of water convened and believed it best if you were to take time to adjust to your new life in Beji, and in Ko, as in youth we all tend to be more inclined to sociality. It will also give you time to find how to manifest your talents in new ways here. Moreover, you mother Miwa Higurashi is used to working in the manner the government has in mind, that it is, yes."

Kaede nodded slowly, and Kagome fought to keep her inner frown from showing. That was a bullshit answer for the most part. Kagome could tell by the way Willow's words became more strained the more she spoke, and how her brow furrowed slightly. If that wasn't enough, there was also the matter of her mother's past work experience: about zero for the past two decades. Kagome didn't frown, but she did lean back and cross her arms.

"*What did they just say?*" Ms. Higurashi asked. Kagome told Sato to take a crack at translation, and for the next three or for minutes she nudged him back on the right linguistic path when his reiteration in Japanese strayed from the English meaning.

_'I'm being closed up again, told I can't go outside…'_ Kagome fumed inside.

"Today we will show all of ye- -oh, all of you where some basic things are in the area, though I will have to take your mother for a little while later in the afternoon for job placement." Kaede said. And after a few more minutes of discussion, that is what they did, with Kagome picking up and carrying her grandfather on her back when he refused to get out of his wheelchair and walk down two flights of stairs. It made her wonder how he got up them the night before, but she wasn't in the mood to have him spit in her hair so she let the matter be.

The cars in Ko seemed a little more modern than those in Prialata, but not up to date with the vehicles she had left behind on Earth. Huffing and sweating, Kagome trudged forward towards the grey automobile, which seemed to carry its engine underneath the frame. This reduced its length but made it taller, making it look almost like a very, very small bus. She didn't bother to wonder why the inside was fashioned with vibrant red, green and silver fabric; she was just glad there was a seatbelt.

And off they went… for about thirty seconds. The car, driving on the left side of the road, pulled up to a building with a large, walk in store which Kaede noted was the closest supermarket. They wandered inside while Kaede stayed in the car, with Willow leading the way around and showing all four Higurashi's how to pick up fruits and vegies and then wait in a line to have them weighed by a member of the store's staff. They did this again with bags of rice and bread, carbonated lemonade, meat, and cheese. Lots of lines. Kagome noticed that the people around them seemed to know who they were, as every now and then a middle aged man or pre-teen girl would tap them on the shoulder and say, "Welcome dearly to Ko."

Kagome recounted all the times in her past where she had been indiscriminately hounded by reporters or fans of her father's work, or flat out attacked in the case of Dulas… this place was very different, and she had no idea why. After finishing the thought she helped her mother work on the necessarily language to get two slabs of bright pink fish from the weighing person, a light skinned man with a bushy black beard who looked like he was fighting back pure horror when the two of them conversed in Japanese. '_At least that's normal…'_ Kagome thought.

Next up was a local bank, where for some strange reason there were no lines. In fact there were lines of tiny cubicles with people sitting waiting for people to come and ask them for help or reading a book in their extra time. As they set up a new family account Kagome did notice a teenage woman in a distant cubicle completely asleep, her head back and mouth hanging open. Kagome pointed her out to Sota and the two laughed quietly.

A few minutes down the road they had started on, but in the opposite direction, the group found a post office joined to a hospital, though at first Kagome thought they had encountered some ancient castle built in a Tibetan/Irish architectural style. They wandered inside the post office and got their address 'initiated'. Kagome raised one of her eyebrows at the word, and Willow pulled her aside. "Yeah, see some of the apartments and houses around Polis don't have anyone living in them, so it doesn't make sense to keep those addresses on the books. A waste of ink, that is. So you _initiate_ your address when you move somewhere new so that you can get mail."

Kagome pretended to understand before letting the party move along. They made a minor stop at Emergency Response Center, or E.R.S. as the two native Polisian's called it, which Kagome figured was a mix of a fire station, police station and ambulance dispatch. After that they crossed a local branch of the Order Station, which seemed to take on the managerial, detective, enforcement and analytical sides of police work.

Kagome closed her eyes for the next few stops, which she tuned out. It was just too much information to process all at once.

"You all seem overwhelmed. Let's call this a day," Kaede said from the front seat.

"Overwhelmed… that is a perfect way to say it, Kaede," Kagome muttered without removing her hands from her face. Willow said something, and then Sota said something, and then she stopped paying attention again. The jerking stop let her know when they got back to the apartment, and Kagome moved to pick her grandfather up and lug him back up the stairs, but she felt a firm hand on her shoulder.

"Go on ahead Kagome, I'd like a word with him," Kaede said.

"Oh… okay. Oh, wait, uh, he only speaks Japanese."

Kaede smiled. "Didn't I tell you? I know the peasant form of Demon tongue. I can handle the situation."

Kagome blinked a few times, nodded, and got out of the car. She walked up with her mother, Sota, and Willow carrying their extra groceries and the maps they snagged at the post office, though Kagome looked over her shoulder a few times to see what the old woman was doing.

"Oh how wonderful your apartment is, built in the Luanda style!" Willow exclaimed as the reached the front steps.

"What's the Luanda style?" Sota asked.

Willow smiled so broadly again that her eyes turned into squints. "Just like this building, see? Well, the outside is definitely Polisian, it is very artistic. I really like the maroon and beige stone they used to make this place. But Luanda style has a gated, covered staircase on one side of the building, just like this one. You open the gate and walk up the stairs, and every few steps you get to a new floor. That way each apartment can also have a small garden on the roof of their neighbors. It reminds me of home."

Kagome nodded, noting that the building looked like a very large set of stairs with a large clock tower situated on one corner. She was about to focus on the tower, which looked art nouveau with its flame like sculpture and green tiled roof, but she pulled back to the conversation.

"Home? You're not from Polis?"

"That's it!" Willow said affirmatively. "I'm from South Luanda… you don't know where that is do you?"

Ms. Higurashi and Sota shook their heads. "It sound like grass no Luanda - - oh, grass OF Luanda." Ms. Higurashi offered.

Willow nodded. "Yes yes, those are from North Luanda. In western Ko there are mountains, and they're called the Luanda Mountains. Hundreds of years ago they were their own countries, North and South Luanda, but they were annexed to Ko, though the South joined first! And you want to know how you are speaking with a North Luandan versus a South Luandan?"

"Sure," Kagome said, unlocking the door to their apartment and walking inside.

Willow pointed to her hair. "Southerners have blonde hair, northerners have black hair." She smiled. "We're different in a lot of other ways too, but that is the great difference, that is! Anyway, I think we'll let you all rest for a while here. Me and Kaede will go back to compound for lunch and then come and talk to you, Ms. Higurashi, about work, yeah?"

The three Higurashis nodded and sighed simultaneously. Willow smiled and headed back down the stairs.

"So… we have a garden?" Sota asked, proceeding to open and slam every door in the apartment until he found the way to their elevated yard. Kagome rolled her eyes and gave her mother a pat on the shoulder, then walking over to what she assumed was the phone since it had a hand piece, receiver, and a piece of paper next to it with the words, "Sango; Hazel; Mother's Compound," written on it with several numbers nearby.

"I wonder how this works…"

"Kagome, come look at this," her mother said. Kagome put the piece of paper down and went over to her mother who was looking out of one of the oval windows. Ji-Chan had gotten up out of the car and was walking up the stairs. He looked thoroughly unhappy, but he was moving.

"Well what do you make of that…" Miwa whispered.

* * *

"Hmm…" Sango mumbled, taking another sip of the fruit smoothie she purchased on the way over to the Higurashi residence. She, like Kagome, was wrapped up in a wool blanket and was pouring over atlases and the notebooks the two had accumulated to hold their theories about Beji and Earth. The fire in the fireplace and a lamp in a far corner of the room lit the room like a warm ember.

"Well, I know that Polynesians and Australian aborigines usually had blonde hair on earth. And, well, not to sound really offensive but they look kinda similar to people from the Congo in Africa."

"Congo was a big place," Kagome noted. "I think it was practically the size of India. We should just say it- - - no, wait wait, it's not the Congo, its Angola, Luanda was the capital of Angola. Remember the oil boom and bust there thirty years ago? Well, thirty and a couple of thousand years?"

"Oh yeah, you're right!" Sango said. She pulled one of her notebooks to her and scratched out a few notes. She wrote a few more things down underneath them and circled them twice. "So… what we think what happened was that the U.S. took over the colonizing process on Ibeji from Japan - - ahp, Beji, not Ibeji, I still do that… anyway, they opened up the planet to other people who they had alliances with, and I guess Angola came to that mountain range first and then… some Polynesian people came there second and the people who lived in Ko just didn't know any better. They thought they looked the same, so they just called them both Luandans."

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Kagome replied. "That really makes me think… Where were you when they evacuated all of the islands in the south pacific to Australia?"

Sango set her drink down in her lap and looked upwards for a moment, and then into the fire. "I don't know, maybe seven… I can still remember the video footage… I remember seeing this one girl crying in the arms of some old woman while in a helicopter… I think that was the evacuation of Tahiti."

"Yeah, I remember that…" Kagome replied quietly. "And I remember the civil war in Fiji when only the main island was left above sea water, and all of those riots in Sydney when the people from Tonga tried to make an enclave in the city…"

Sango nodded quietly, still watching the fire. "You know… I don't understand a lot of why that happened. My father used to say that he couldn't wait for me to ask my grandparents why they didn't do anything to stop the ocean floods, or climate change, I think that's what they called it. But… I never asked that. I only sat there and watched it happen, watched so many countries refuse to help millions of people getting displaced… it happened with me too, living in Florida. Every few years we had to keep moving farther inland."

"Me too…" Kagome said. "My mother and grandfather lived through the great earthquake of twenty… was it 2030? I honestly can't remember, they censored it in the history textbooks at my school."

"The Great Kanto Earthquake of 2032," Sango offered.

"Ah, yeah… It took Tokyo such a long time to rebuild from that, and by the time it was halfway there the ocean broke the sea walls and flooded a lot of the old city. I lived in Kyoto at that time, but it was awful… and I never asked my parents why they didn't do anything to stop it either. I mean, how do you stop 200 years of human pollution and chemical restructuring of the planet's atmosphere? You don't, you adjust… but it was so horrible watching China get flooded and seeing Korea and Japan doing nothing to help…"

The two were quiet for several minutes, neither one wanting to continue revisiting the reasons they left Earth behind.

"…When was your mother supposed to get home?"

"Two hours ago," Kagome said. "She did the job placement thing yesterday after we went all over the place around here, and then Kaede and some other guy asked her to come in today for more testing… I'm beginning to think my honeymoon goody-good feelings about Polis and Ko are fading."

Sango nodded. "Its' still better than Prialata."

"Oh goodness yes, Polis is MEGAMETERS better than Prialata."

Sango smiled. "Oh, guess what? I was able to get my earrings off finally. I asked Hanzel to use wire clips to take them off, and it took him forever, but ta-dah! No more earrings."

"That's awesome…" Kagome said, but the room quickly filled with silence. They looked at each other and then the fire again. "It kinda sucks that this apartment doesn't have a TV."

"Mine doesn't either. I asked around at the Order Station they have me working at, and the people there said that TV's are really only used by the government and college professors to quickly send information. You know, like a proto-internet."

"What!? _YOU_ got a _JOB?!_" Kagome fumed.

"Uh yeah, how do you think I paid for the smoothies?"

Kagome threw her arms across her chest in a huff. "Well that's just great. They've got me all cooped up here again with no way out while you get to go out and do things in the world."

"…_no way out_?" Sango repeated. "What does that mean?"

Kagome shrugged. "I just… I want to be doing something, you know? I don't like not being busy."

"Really? Why?"

"…I don't know, I just don't." Kagome replied. An image of a white haired half demon flashed through her mind. "Hah, I just had an Inuyasha moment."

Sango blinked. "You are very hard to follow this evening, Kagome."

"That half-demon from Iguto, Inuyasha? He says stuff like that: '_I just don't'_ or '_That's stupid.'_ He's real blunt." Kagome offered in explanation.

"… Since when were you talking to _him_? Isn't he a prince?"

"I'm not talking to him. Well, I was, you know, when we first met in Prialata and then on the trip here… wait, hold on, 'talking to someone' has more than one context in English, right? Which one did you just use?"

Sango smiled quizzically. "I actually wasn't thinking about that at all. Either you… you know, you had a lot of conversations with him, or you were dating him…?"

"NO! NO I WASN'T DATING HIM!"

"I don't know," Sango said as her smile turned more lithe and she moved down to the straw on her smoothie. "Maybe you feel the hots for the prince boy. He is pretty, I'll give you tha—"

"WE WERE JUST TALKING! NORMAL TALKING! WORDS AND THINGS AND WORDS, NOTHING MORE!"

Sango burst out laughing and started shaking her head, and in that moment the lock on the front door clacked twice and in entered Ms. Higurashi.

"*Hi girls, how are you doing?*"

Kagome glowered instead of answering directly. Sango calmed down enough to respond kindly, though it took her a little while to do so.

"*What were you two doing?*"

"*Just talking mama. What happened with the job testing or whatever it was?*"

Ms. Higurashi smiled lightly as she hung up her navy nylon jacket she'd had for years. "*Very, very well, though I am a little anxious about it. Oh you have a fire going, that's very nice…*"

Ms. Higurashi walked over to the love seat square and sat down opposite of Kagome, facing the fire for a few moments to warm her face. "*Oh… that's very nice. Kaede mentioned that its going to warm up here in a few days as they're getting close to summer-time, but the nights are still quite brisk.*"

"*Uh mom? Work? What happened?*"

"*Oh, right, of course dear,*" Ms. Higurashi shook herself a bit. "I've been placed in the… well, I don't know if I'm supposed to share this information with you two, but I've been placed in the Central Intelligence Service of Ko as a decryptor."

Sango cheered happily for Ms. Higurashi, and Kagome smiled too, but she couldn't help feeling sour in her smile. After a moment she saw her mother's eyes flit over to the kitchen and back, wearing an expression Kagome recognized as her own.

* * *

Sota was off to his first day at school in Polis now, Mrs. Higurashi to her first day of work, and Kagome watched through the oval windows of the kitchen as Willow picked up her grandfather for an official tour of the Mother's Compound. Her gaze was steady, but not peaceful. The circles under her eyes were hurting after another terrifying night spent in a huddle.

Everyone seemed to expect her to know… well, to know what to do on her own. But what was there to do? She didn't have any help to get a job, and that had been forbidden for now anyway. She didn't have any money of her own to shop with, not that she would have done that much shopping in the first place. Kaede had asked her to go out and see what it is like to live in the city… but technically wasn't she doing that already? They had an apartment. She'd been to the grocery store and bank a few more times. What did it mean to live anywhere, or just to live?

She shook her head: existential questions probably weren't the best thing to focus on at the moment. Eventually she chose a direction and started walking.

The sidewalks were about half the size of those Kagome was used to in Tokyo, giving enough room for street side cafes and a few pedestrians but they wouldn't do well with a wall of people. That seemed okay though since there was only a steady trickle of pedestrians out on the streets and a few passing cars in a minute. They generally had caramel colored skin but their hair and eye color were dozens of shades, from platinum blonde to midnight and from winter gray to chocolate. As she kept walking she caught a few pointing to her and whispering, but when she turned to look at them they smiled, waved, and kept walking. She couldn't figure out whether it was relieving or eerie.

A few blocks out Kagome looked up to the sky, or as much of it as she could see between the buildings of Polis. It was bright blue with only wisps of white and red clouds up in the higher parts of the atmosphere. '_Does it rain here every night like Prialata or not…?'_ she wondered. She then walked into a pole.

A bearded man helped her up and asked her if she was okay. She thanked him off with a blush and bowed to say goodbye, catching herself at the last second. She looked up to see the man looking at her quizzically. "Not from here, yeah?" he asked.

"No, sorry, I'm… uh…"

"Don't worry about it, not a bit, yeah? Where you going to?"

Kagome held herself a second, trying to make sense of the weird way the man was talking. It was very similar to how that woman, Willow, spoke, but with a difference accent, with longer, deeper vowels. She shook herself a bit again.

"I… um, well, I don't know. I'm just walking around," she said.

The man's eyes brightened as he turned and pointed down the road she was on. "Keep going this way and you'll get to the Rubi Roundabout, and then you'll cross the bridge and get to the Mother's Compound, yeah? You know that is?"

'_You know that is… maybe he means you know where that is?'_ "Uh… across the bridge right?"

The man looked at her funny again. "Uh… the Mother's Compound? The women there? You know them?"

"Oh! Yes, yes, the Abbot Kaede, or Mother Kaede, eheh! Yes, I know what you're talking about…," She tried to smile, but it was clear that the man thought something was wrong with her. He waved her off and Kagome continued walking down the road, pressing her lips together and trying to get the fire on her face to quell.

Sgt. Rubi Roundabout turned out to be about a mile off, so Kagome paused to look around once she got there. The buildings here were like the ones she had passed before: pretty tall and built of powerfully colored bricks. One was deep scarlet and trimmed with goldenrod and black details around the corners, windows and roof, while another had a tall, ancient looking clock tower built of grey stone but encased in a lithe, web-like lattice of silver, gold and green. The statue at the middle of the roundabout had a person standing in a valiant position, but she couldn't find a way to get over to the middle and read about him, so she pressed on down the road looking for this bridge the bearded man told her of.

Kagome pushed herself up a hill and she immediately knew she was on the right path - - the bridge was right in front of her. It was tall, black and metallic, and the closer she got to it the more she realized that it was actually violet. After crossing an intersection and dodging something that kind of looked like a bus if it had been modeled after a squid, Kagome saw the never-ending etch-work in the metal pillars that swirled in a way that reminded her of galaxies colliding. Black wire poked out from the main beams and spread like a spider's web to the other beams nearby, and then jumped on to the next beam and so on across the bridge. Kagome walked along the sidewalk inlaid on the side of the bridge as cars whizzed by, letting her fingers trail behind her as they bumped along the metalwork.

The wind picked up at the center of the bridge, knocking Kagome into the rail fence on the interior side of the bridge. After collecting herself she looked out over the huge lake in the middle of the city: it looked like the tallest buildings were on the other side of the city quarter she just left, while the area she was walking towards looked like it was built on several large, rolling hills. Sitting in a nook between two of those hills was a irregular, white brick building with four towers and four flags, and she could just see that one was blue and another red.

After crossing the bridge, a rail-road track, several large intersections and pushing herself up a _very_ steep hill Kagome found herself at the white building, the Mother's Compound. At least that's what the signs hanging from light posts said. From the silvery streaks from the top of the building going down like a waterfall stuck in time, the building had been around for quite some time. Kagome found a wooden bench in the entry courtyard and paused to gather her breath from her trek.

"Well if it isn't the alien!" She heard behind her. Kagome dropped her head so it swung toward the rabble-rouser, and found a violet clad professor with black hair walking towards her.

"Miroku? What are you doing here?"

"Just some business for the University. What are you doing here?" He asked, stepping up to her with his hands in his pockets.

"I'm not really sure. I don't have anything to do, so I'm just… walking around I guess," she blew out a sour puff of air at the end. "I've never really had nothing to do, you know?"

Miroku chuckled and shook his head while brushing back some of his hair. "Always on the go, aren't you? We need to find you a boyfriend, Ms. Higurashi."

She rolled her eyes as he laughed on. "Hardy har har," She hissed.

"What's that?"

"Hardy har har. I'm expressing my unpleasant complacency towards your laughter."

"Why unpleasant? Come on, walk with me; I'm done here," Miroku said. Seeing as she had no where else to go and no one else to hang around, Kagome picked herself up and jumped over the bench to stand next to him.

"Does it really matter why 'unpleasant'?" She retorted.

"Back in Noto, no it doesn't, or in Prialata, but Polis is different. If you feel something its important here. So c'mon, what's got you all sour?"

Kagome contemplated the question for a moment: A confusing connection to the spirit world, living on a new planet let alone a new city and country, struggling to keep a brain in Japanese and English, wanting to work but being denied, sleepless nights, and never before having had a boyfriend… not that she'd _want_one…

"It really isn't all that important," She tried to laugh it off. "But hey, would you mind showing me around the city? I mean, oops… Do you have anything else that you have to do first?"

"I was going to drop by the library, but that can wait," He said. Kagome smiled in return and they left the compound, turning right and continuing up the hill Kagome just ventured.

Kagome stopped mid-stride and waited until Miroku was next to her. He looked at her bemused. "Now what?"

"Now what nothing, you were looking at my butt," she replied tersely. Miroku laughed again but started walking again.

"Would you prefer I feel it?"

"Only if you want to feel it with your bone marrow," Kagome replied.

He laughed yet again, slapping Kagome on the shoulder. At first she jumped back, but when she saw him leaning on the wall of the compound she let her curiosity overcome her shock.

"Oh man Kagome, you don't miss a beat!" He chortled out. "Are all of the Earth women like this?"

She stood there for a second, not wholly sure how to reply to him. Miroku finished his outburst, let out a whistle and smoothed his shirt. "Seriously Ms. Higurashi, I'm not always trying to come on to you. It's a force of habit for me, and believe me you're quite pretty, but you're more of a friend to me now then a morsel, okay? Don't be so fidgety!"

"Uh…," Once again she was caught off guard. The words, '_you're quite pretty'_ felt like Legos in her head, trying to find a place to be connected to when all there was only smoke. She shook herself a bit and pushed out a smile. "I'll try not to… so… you said there is a library around here somewhere?"

Miroku nodded as they kept walking up the hill. "Yeah, but not in the Kitchen, its over on Gold Shore."

"Oh - - are those the names of the different quarters of the city?" Kagome asked.

"Two of them anyway. This part's called the Kitchen because… well, I don't really know why, I haven't been here long enough to find out. But Gold Shore is on the opposite side of the lake diagonally."

Kagome recalled the quarter with the tallest buildings, including one in particular that was tall, gold in color and had an architectural design like a surge of water reaching for the sky. "Sounds interesting," She said.

They chatted a bit more as they climbed two more hills, and as they stood on what Kagome guessed was the highest point in the kitchen Miroku stopped them. "You know, I know something we can do on the way to the library - - - oh, two things! Hahaha, we'll find a boyfriend for you yet, Kagome!"

Kagome stood there for a moment, moving aside for a group of teenagers on green bicycles. "I… Miroku I don't even know what to… What are you planning? And why the insistence on a boyfriend? I'm fine on my own, thank you very much!"

"We—look! Down there, the train's arriving, run for it!"

Before Kagome could pry more answers out of him the professor took off full speed down the hill in front of them, jumping over a potted plant in front of a walled off apartment building towards the red and brown train station way over at the bottom. She hesitated before muttering, "Oh hell," and chasing after him.

Kagome very quickly lost control of her speed and began screaming as she swerved down the road, bypassing the bicycle riding teenagers she'd just seen a few moments before. This was until she met the potted plant, which she tried to jump over but the top of her shoe caught what felt like a tree trunk hidden under the turquoise foliage, and she rolled, tumbled and skidded to a grinding bloody stop a little farther on. She growled and picked herself up, sprinting down the rest of the way but trying to take smaller steps this time. She made it to the intersection at the end of the road right before the train station but couldn't stop, instead throwing herself into traffic and screaming again as the honks and curses blared around her. Miroku had just enough time to look over his shoulder before she rammed into him, throwing both of them into the walls of the staircase up to the train station.

"*Ow, boobs!*" Kagome hissed, clutching her throbbing chest and internally damning whoever on Beji thought of male suspenders with studs in the back.

"Oh mother of earth, tell me my nose isn't broken…" She heard from in front of her.

"It's not broken," She said.

"Good, I - - wait, you didn't even look!"

"You didn't say look and tell, you said tell. Now come on, your train's about to go I think!"

The whirring whistle of the train in front of them perked Miroku's attention, and instead of going around to the stairs he grabbed the handrail and pulled himself up and over. He turned around just in time to see Kagome do the same though not as gracefully, and they jumped up the rest of the steps and running onto the last open platform of the train as it pulled out of the small, street-side station.

"By the mothers…," Miroku gasped. "We made it…"

"Yeah… just…" Kagome let herself slide down a bit and rest against the sides of the train. "My legs are going to hate me tomorrow… oh crap, Miroku, we didn't pay."

There was silence. Kagome opened her eyes to see the train station starting to shrink against the backdrop of the glistening lake, the grayish yellow-green hills and the almost cloudless sky, as well as the rainbow spatter of buildings. She looked up at Miroku, who looked utterly confused.

"We didn't… pay? Pay for what?" He asked.

"You know, the train? There's a fee to use it, right?"

Miroku's eyes slowly widened. "…Did you have to _PAY_ to use public transportation where you come from?"

"…yeah…," Kagome said slowly.

"You're home planet, or country, or city - - whatever it is, it sounds weird."

Kagome tried to think of a come back to his comment, but after thinking for a moment or two she just pressed her lips together and nodded. He helped her to her feet and they went through the back sliding door into the train. Conversations buzzed in the air inside, and upon entering a small group of middle age women surround her and asked her if she was okay, pointing to the bloody gash on her leg from when she fell. She tried to laugh it off but the women refused to hear it, tugging Kagome over to the small seats they had and rummaging through their canvas satchels for something to clean and dress the wound. Over the fuss she heard Miroku's voice - - she looked over and saw that he was talking to what looked like a young family with a toddler. She caught the words, "one of the _aliens_," and "a nice girl, real smart too," and "no, not my type," coming from the general direction. By the time Miroku called her so they could get off at their stop she had a steady stream of water coming from her eyes which she easily blamed on the pain in her leg.

"Not like Prialata, is it?" Miroku said teasingly, walking along side Kagome at the lime green station they found themselves at.

"No, not really…" Kagome said. "So where is the library from here?"

"Oh, that's still on Gold Shore. We're in the Rose Quarter, in the Witten District I think."

Kagome followed him down the stairs. "The Kitchen, the Gold Shore, the Rose Quarter… okay, Miroku, why are we here?"

"Remember? I told you that we were going to find you a boyfriend!"

'_Oh right, he did,_' "And I repeat that I don't really need that. And besides, a boyfriend is a person you get to know and stuff, it's not like you're going to a field, finding a pretty flower, picking it and then calling for a wedding cake to be brought over."

Miroku turned around and started walking backward, a smile on his face as he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. "It's called _humor_ Kagome, weren't you going to try to not be so fidgety?"

"I did. But I didn't say I was going to be an idiot in its place."

Miroku sighed and rolled his eyes again, turning around and heading down a wider boulevard with plenty of pedestrians. "You should listen to the Daughters more often, learn about moderation and stuff!"

"*Don't talk to me about moderation Mr.I-don't-know-what-Buddhism-is…*" she whispered caustically, but caught up with him none-the-less. "Okay, okay, I'll try not to be so… hyper-vigilant."

"Good – oh, excuse me ma'am, I didn't see you…"

Kagome dodged out of the way of the dark woman with shopping bags, making a note that she had now seen two Southern Luandan's in Polis… wait, was it northern or southern that Willow was a part of? '_Ugh, I'm going to confuse myself to oblivion…_'

"You see that big stadium up there?" Miroku asked, pointing above the heads of the mile or two of people in front of them to the top of a hill draped in afternoon shadow.

"Uh, I see steps and a red and blue wall," Kagome said.

"Well, that _is_ a stadium up there, it's the Swim stadium. Women train and compete on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and guys do the same on Mekaday, Tuesday, and Thursday."

"Three for each, okay… I still don't see what this has to do with getting me a boyfriend. Also, what the heck is Mekaday?"

"Its one of the days of the week - - you know, Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Mekaday."

"…Ah… it used to be called… you know, never mind. The boyfriend stuff."

"Yeah, right, well - - oh look over there! Do you want a disc of ice cream?"

Kagome had heard of an ice cream cone before but not a disc. After Miroku volunteered to pay she nodded and followed him over to a small vending cart with a tall, silver stained umbrella, and she once again reminded herself that, in Sango's words, '_Silver is everywhere_'.

"I'll have a Ruby Scone Swirl, and she'll have… Kagome, what flavor do you want?"

Kagome looked over at Miroku and then to stout man who looked like his leathery hands had seen this little stall for a few years too many for his taste, but he still gave her a smile. "Where are you two from, you are?" He said.

"Well I'm from Noto, yeah? But she's—"

"I'm one of the aliens," Kagome shot out. The man in front of her started for a moment before beaming, revealing a twinkle in his aged green eyes.

"Then you've never had a disc of ice cram before, you haven't eh?" He asked.

"Nope! We had ice cream, or at least something _like_ ice cream where I used to live, but it… whoa… it didn't look _ANYTHING _like this…"

There were six tubs of ice cream on display under a frosty glass countertop, and Kagome certainly had never seen anything like this. One was blood red with what looked like chocolate swirls in it, and right next to it was something that looked like it was pure water but as dark blue as the bottom of the ocean. Next to it was something light and poufy looking, and even though the alphabet was on Beji wasn't exactly English she could still see that 'Vanilla' had made it to the new world. Below that was a pale pink think with bits of candied nuts, and the other two were neon yellow and turquoise, but the latter looked like it was boiling in extreme slow motion.

"I would like that one," Kagome said, pointing to the crystal clear blue tub.

"One Kwis Kiss for the lovely lady!" The man said. He reached down and used a ice cream scoop to pull a large chunk of the stuff out. As he did little creamy cracks forms around the stuff he had removed, making it look slightly more like normal ice cream, but the rest seemed to absorb the impact like molasses. The man pulled out a stick and jammed it through a shallow, cardboard cone, stuck the ball of ice cream on top, and handed it to her with two napkins. After Miroku took his and paid they continued on their way and Kagome inspected her treat.

"I want to know how they _do_ this…" Kagome muttered, inspecting her ice cream from every angle.

"Come on, it's going to melt," Miroku chided, strolling along down the boulevard to the stadium.

Standing in front of a shoe shop, Kagome leaned in and sniffed the 'Kwis Kiss'. It smelled a little like distant seaweed. With Miroku watching, she took her first lick.

It felt like a mix of jello and cream, like pudding but smoother and cold. After her first lick she had a strange tickle on her tongue she couldn't place, but once she swallowed a bloom of flavors spilled into her mouth, a medley of coconut, grape and white chocolate with a slight, salty, almost alcoholic bite at the end.

"So…? What do you think?" Miroku asked. Kagome shook her head and put up a hand to tell him to wait. She then took a big bite out of the ice cream and, a few moments late, squinted terribly as she found out the ice cream head-aches made it to Beji too. After warming a bit in the sun she started walking towards the stadium, Miroku following suit.

"So, Miroku…,"

"So Kagome?" He replied, licking his red and brown ice cream disc.

"Remember when we first met, and you said 'the religious debates are going to get more interesting'?"

"Oh no, don't go trying to change the subject on me now!" He shot back.

"Wha-? I'm not changing the subject, I'm asking a serious question! I wanted—"

"Nope, no Kagome, you're serious enough as it is. C'mon, lighten up! Enjoy the day! And you're about to see swimmer guys competing for the attention of their girl fan-bases!"

"The world's got enough light people in it already, there needs to be some more serious…," Kagome caught her retort half way out her mouth as she recalled his quip earlier about moderation. Now that she was thinking about it, she had been tense ever since they arrived in Polis… or Prialata really… or, actually, probably before her family got on that spaceship. _'Am I out of balance here? It doesn't feel like it… this is just normal, isn't it?'_

"You still alive in there?" Miroku asked, waiting for the blue go signal to let them cross the intersection.

"Yeah, just thinking…,"

"Which you need to do less of," Miroku replied. Kagome looked up to him and studied his cheeky grin. Somehow seemed much more grounded than the adolescent smirks she'd seen on the boys back in Tokyo; she couldn't quite put her finger on why. She took a deep breath and let out a sigh, letting her face relax, and slipping into a moment of meditation.

"I'll drop the religion question for now…" She said. "But… 'lightening up'… I don't think it makes sense to _try_ to lighten up, but rather to _let_ yourself lighten up. Because if you try you're putting in effort, which means you are forcing yourself to do it, and so then you're not actually lightening up but pretending. But if you just…"

"If you just let yourself be yourself, it all comes into place," Miroku said, still smiling. The light changed to go. Kagome followed him across the street, studying her 'Kwis Kiss', and thought about her time in the temples of Kyoto and the shrines in Tokyo, or when she met the Protestants in Korea or the nuns in Taiwan. Looking back, the only times she had ever felt _light_ was then—

"It's about letting your emotions take over and be your guide," Miroku chimed in, sending Kagome's thought out her forehead and into the silvery yonder. "It's better that way, you'll see."

"Just don't forget that I want to talk about the religion stuff eventually," she sighed.

"I won't."

"Or that I want to see this Great Library."

"Okay."

"Or that-!"

"Kagome…,"

"Right, right, in the moment, let that stuff go…," Kagome repeated. After about two seconds something else popped into her head. "So why-!"

"Kagome!"

"No, this isn't like the others! Why do the swimmers compete for, uh… affection, I guess?" She asked.

Miroku smiled as they moved along, the stairs up to the stadium just another intersection away. "Its this weird thing about Polisians, and Ko people in general. I've traveled around a lot, and each older city has one or two sports that they pretty much specialize in, and in Polis it's swimming: makes sense considering Fair Voice Lake's right in the middle.

"Anyway, there is this tradition called the Lover's Limpic, where men ask the girl or guy they like to come and see them compete, and if they win the person they asked to come is obligated to go out on a date with them, and it works the same way for women."

"Wow… I'm surprised you guys are so lenient with homosexuality here… that was such a big issues back on- wait, limpic? Like THE Olympics?!" Kagome asked fervently.

Miroku stared at her. "Olim…pixes?"

"Never mind. Anyway…what am I supposed to do at this Lover's Limpic? I don't know anyone there, and no one's invited me there."

"No, but it's a good mingling spot, and there will be plenty of guys racing who will just be there for the competition or training, so don't worry."

Kagome nodded once as they got the last blue light to cross the street and head up the steps. From the sound of applause above them the races had already started today, though there weren't many people climbing the steps with them. "Have you ever raced in the limpic?" She asked.

"Oh no, I prefer a different kind of exercise, thank you. And I'm from Napan - - we're far more quiet about our displays of interest."

Kagome scoffed. "Says the guy who asked a woman to bear his children within her first ten minutes on the planet."

"Hey, there are exceptions to every rule," Miroku replied.

About halfway up the steps, Kagome heaved out the question. "Won't this be awkward for you? I mean, there are guys racing today, but no- - wait… there will be plenty of women mingling there too, like me, won't there?"

"Bingo," Miroku replied. Kagome stared at him for a second trying to understand what 'bingo' meant, but she figured it meant something along the lines of 'Hell yes,' and kept climbing.

"So…," She began again. "Have you ever been asked here before? You know, from women, or other men I guess."

He laughed. "While I've had some male admirers but I've had to turn them all down. Women are just too lovely. And yes, I've been invited to the Limpics several times and have gone on plenty of wonderful excursions afterwards."

Kagome nodded. "Good for you! Mr. Popular!"

"…Especially with my students, it gets so hot watching them go… you're making a serious face again."

Kagome stood on one of the top steps and shivered in the sun for a second before gulping up the last of her ice cream, jumping up the last few steps and chucking her stick into a trash can, legs begging her to stop walking and climbing and running around. "I just… you, students… its like the dirigible all over again; just get me inside Miroku."

He obliged, paying her fare in to the semi-covered arena: bleachers had been carved out of the hill side and provided a vista of the lake and the city of Polis and its tall hills in the background. At the bottom of the amphitheater were two long pools and one small round one where there were a couple of young men resting it seemed. Kagome followed Miroku to a mid level bleacher where there was a counter railing and stools to sit on, all just hidden by the limits of the fabric lip encircling the outer edge of the stadium.

"So… now what?" Kagome asked.

"You could just wait and see," Miroku replied, getting up on his stool and gesturing to a female server nearby. The woman smiled and hugged him and inquired into his family and his research, but Kagome noted how the woman's stare turned a little sour when she saw Kagome sitting right next to the Professor. "And who's your _friend_? Another one of your students, Dr. D.Y.?"

"Don't worry little one, she's just a new friend of mine and I'm showing her the Lover Limpics. You're still the sweetest fruit Polis has to offer," He said, giving her a quick kiss on the wrist. The woman giggled in a painfully high-pitched voice that made Kagome turn her head so she wouldn't be caught gagging.

"Hey girl!"

Kagome groaned on the inside as she turned to look at the waitress. Her chest was firmly placed on Miroku's head; he looked like he was caught in a very awkward social situation. "Don't lay a finger on my hot doctor, got it? Otherwise I'm taking you down to the water!"

Her words hung in the air for a few moments until her shrill laughter broke in. Kagome laughed along nervously, eventually figuring out how to say, "Oh don't worry, he's not on my radar at all. Like he said, we really are just friends."

The girl shifter her weight out onto one lip, placed a very long kiss on Miroku's mouth and headed off. Miroku remained deep in blush for a few moments, receiving his yellow drink in silence. Kagome poured her water through the mini Clarence device given to her when his drink came, and took a sip, watching him carefully. "She seems… nice."

Miroku sighed and stared down at the pool where young men were lining up. He rubbed his hands through his hair again and took a longer swig of his drink, hissing when he came up for air.

"So boyfriend! Heh heh… For me… how do I get one of these swimmers? Oh look, they have a sign in the back with their names - - I wasn't expecting digital stuff here," Kagome said, turning her attention to the pool.

Miroku sighed again. "Oh, uh, just… you know, watch."

Kagome frowned and watched Miroku take another drink. "Miroku, you were fine just a minute ago, and then that girl came over—"

"Honestly, just watch the water, I'm focusing on making this erection go down."

Kagome let her eyes slide closed, pressed her lips together and waited for the next however amount of time to pass. She pressed Miroku a little later to help her get into the swing of things at the Limpics, but he offered nothing, and she started to think that perhaps the professor's promiscuity wasn't as simple as it appeared. As pretty as Polis was, its luster was fading fast.

Kagome rode the train home as the sun was setting the storm clouds gathered, and listened to Sota and her mother talk about their new lives that seemed to be falling into place around them. That's what it felt like anyway. During dinner she looked over the table at Ji-Chan's silent, sullen face, and wondered if this is what he felt like when he found out his father died: that trying wasn't even worth it.

The next day passed and Kagome went out walking again, but failed to find Miroku and couldn't get access into the Mother's Compound to find Kaede or Willow, so she got back onto the train and kept riding, hoping to be able to find the Great Library in the same way she found the compound. After the two hours it took to circle Polis by train she got off and wandered back to the apartment to read the Atlases she already had.

Several more days passed. Sota started to seem less enthused about school, but it wasn't clear why. Mama kept doing well, though orientation was clearly a struggle for her considering it was all done in English. Hazel had been drafted to the Intelligence's Office, so he was helping, but it was frequently stop and go, or just plain stop and wonder what the hell was just said. Kagome offered to go and help with translation, but her mother told her it wouldn't be necessary.

The days became a week, and then another. Commit the Clarence. Buy groceries. Cook. Read. Re-read. Memorize. By the third Monday she felt numb and exhausted, as sleep was the only time something creative took hold of her mind.

"It must be so nice, it must," Willow said, putting her things down on the sofa after help Sota back home from school. "I'm just a niece, but so much to do there always is. You must have seen all the sights by now, right?"

Kagome hung back, listening to the faraway crack of lightning amongst the tepid rain outside. "Well…,"

"May I sit for a bit? I'm very tired I am," She asked. Kagome nodded and Willow smoothed her pants before taking a seat down on the couch, letting out a large exhale. "Oh… much better. But tell me, what have you been doing?"

Kagome brought the stone Clarence device over from the kitchen counter to the middle table and poured enough water for two glasses. "Not very… just reading mostly. I don't know where anything is here. I mean, I know where the Mother's Compound, but they don't let visitors without and official envoy or entrance statement, so… yeah."

Willow turned over and put a hand on her hip. "You have to take life by the wind, Kagome! It'll be boring to just sit around day after day, you have to do more than that."

Kagome pressed her lips together again and brought her glass of water to her lap. "Yes, I am aware of that."

"Now c'mon, tell me what you want to go see! We could make a night of it in a few weeks when I get my next leave!" Willow asked.

"Well, I would like to see this Great Library I've heard of…," Kagome began.

"No no, that's boring! C'mon something better!" Willow replied with chuckles, flipping her hand fast like there was a fly in the room.

Kagome took a deep breath. "Well, I still don't know all that much in this city since I only just moved here from… you know, a whole other planet."

Willow rolled her eyes. "You've been here almost half a month! It's practically summer! You can't keep using that excuse, Kagome."

"…Well, its not an excuse, its an explanation. I really just don't know… what to do…"

Willow smiled and shook her head, her afro lagging just a second or two in each direction. "With nothing tying you to anything you can be anything, do anything you can! Just go out and live your life!"

One of Kagome's hands clenched around the glass. There it was AGAIN… go out and _live life…_

"How?" Kagome asked quietly.

"How? You just let it be, you just do it." Willow replied, slightly confused. "Everyone knows how to."

"I don't," Kagome shot back. She felt something rising in her, like a storm, a tempest, or a volcano or a dragon. It bubbled and boiled in her stomach before surging up and eating at her neck, flushing her cheeks. She heard slaps, screaming.

"No, that's not an answer, that doesn't help," Kagome said tersely.

"…I… I don't understand…"

"…Maybe it's a cool thing to you that I have so much free time, but I can't stand it. I've just been sitting around cooped up for months now, not just the time I've been in Polis, in case you didn't notice."

Kagome didn't hear Willow say anything, so she kept staring into the stupid water in the stupid glass that went through the stupid Clarence bullshit.

"I'm sorry but… you tell me to go and live my life, and I should go out and see the… the whatever, but to what end!? Just see it for its foreignness, or just to get used to it? I'd get used to it better if I was actually interacting with it, actually LIVING in it! And it'd be even easier if you didn't keep cooping me up in one place or another like I'm a hen being fattened for the slaughter or something! Just- - Just, just all of you! Mom, Sota, Miroku, all of you! I can't stand it!"

She was standing. When did she stand? Where was the water? Something wet on Kagome's leg. Willow took hold of Kagome's shoulders as she started to shake. "Kagome?! Kagome, stay with me!"

"You can't just _live_! It's not POSSIBLE! You have to survive and keep going, you have to, but no, I don't want to just survive again, I can't, I can't do it, not like dad, please I don't want to-"

"Kagome, focus on my voice, hear me as I hear you!" Willow called out, joining the girl on the floor. "I'm right here, focus on this moment—"

"*I DON'T WANT TO, DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO DAD!* DON'T LOCK ME UP AGAIN! PLEASE STOP STOP MATE MATE MATE!" Kagome screamed at Willow's face, but in that moment she saw the blonde hair through the tears. Her father wasn't the one grabbing her. He wasn't smacking her, it was Willow gently rubbing her hand along Kagome's cheek.

Willow said nothing, only looking into Kagome's eyes calmly, patiently. For a moment Kagome's skin grew cold and felt as if it was curling up inside her, exposing her raw flesh to the sting of the world, but the moment passed, and there was no judgment in Willow's gaze or grip. Kagome saw her hands, but they didn't feel like hers - - it was like she was watching her body twitch and jump from somewhere else. There was sound. Crying? Screaming? Her own?

Kagome's mind blanked with no warning. The world was black, fuzzy, her mind caught in static. "…Why?… I don't under…stand…" she said.

Willow let her arms drop and moved over to Kagome's side. "Your soul is caught in a whirlwind, it is," she said quietly. "That's what the Daughters of Wind call it, but the Daughters of Water call it something different. Your chest gets tight, you can't breath or scream or even know why you're screaming. At least on the surface… deeper down, your soul knows what makes you scared or angry."

"…I'm… I'm not following… Not following your… metaphor Willow, more direct please."

"Yep yep, I can do water," She said, a little more brightly. "That, what I just saw… Not sure of it, I'm not, but I think that's called an Episode. You have flashbacks during the day and night, your emotions and thoughts become erratic, and _just living_ becomes very difficult."

"It's called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," They heard from behind them. The two girls whirled to see Hazel standing in the doorway of Sota's room, the youngest Higurashi standing behind him and peering carefully at Kagome. '_He's scared of…he thinks I'm a monster, like dad…'_ she thought, and her mouth began to grimace as tears surged up into her eyes again.

"…How much did you see?" Willow asked.

"Well… all of it," He replied, giving Sota a quick gesture to hang back before walking forward and kneeling next to them. "It's called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder where we come from. It's when you can't live your life anymore because you're in pain and you can't figure out how to get out of it. So you live it over and over as your body tries to figure out how to keep you safe, and in so doing it boxes you in with the monsters inside."

Willow frowned, but nodded slowly. "Yes yes… anger and sadness are just reactions to pain. Here it's called having a Bent Spirit."

"I can see that," Hazel muttered. "It certainly looks like that sometimes. A lot of my buddies from the war in - - - well, from a war back on Earth, a lot of them had this happen to them."

"Sota…?" Kagome whispered. Hazel and Willow looked back to the doorway. The youngest Higurashi was still standing there, staring, but not in the way Willow had just moments before. "*Sota, please…,*"

"Onegai? What does that mean?" Willow asked Hazel.

"I think it means Please- - Sota! Go back to your room, I'll help you with your homework in a bit, sport."

"*Why…?*" Sota began, but suddenly his face turned red with rage. "*You're weak like mom! You never used to cry, that's for babies!*"

Kagome stared, but the world around Sota darkened.

"*You have it so easy and then you whine and complain about stupid stuff! You're horrible, only thinking about yourself!*"

"*Sota, stop it!*" Kagome yelled back, tears raging out again and choking her.

"The hell?" Hazel yelled.

"*Dad was right, sis! HE was right! You're worthless, you can't do any of that easy stuff! You don't have to worry about school or work, you have all this free time! You're selfish, you're a weak little baby!"

"*SOTA STOP IT RIGHT NOW!*" Kagome roared at him. He started a bit, and after a second started hiccupping. Kagome watched her brother's rage sink beneath tears of his own.

"*Youre a bitch, Kagome! You're a bitch!" He wailed.

"The hell is this…" Hazel cursed under his breath, jumping over to Sota, picking him up and kicking the door shut behind him as he went inside.

Kagome sat there on the floor quietly, listening to the muffled sobs of her brother and Hazel's weary voice trying to calm him down. Somehow her own tears had stopped, but it felt like her heart and stomach had changed places while the rest of the body missed the memo. Her blood curdled in acid while her heart stopped and was crushed by the pressure of darkness.

"…Kagome…?" She heard behind her. It was Willow. '_I probably really scared her…_" she thought to herself. Kagome sat up straight and pulled at the tears in her eyes.

"Looks like my dad made it here after all," She said, Willow still at her back.

"Uh..."

Kagome turned around to face her slowly. Her eyes felt old. "My dad… he was a real beast… It was his idea to bring us all from Japan here to Ibeji, or Beji, sorry… He was supposed to be the first colonial governor person of the colony New Noto."

Kagome waited a moment before going on, watching Willow's face as the dark skinned woman processed this new information.

"When we found out that our space ship missed Beji and had to turn around, had to fly back and make us loose centuries in travel, only my grandfather was really sad about it. But then again, he never saw dad beat us or yell at us or use that cold quiet… It was a dream! We didn't have to face him to get rid of him, this happy trick of fate broke my mom and Sota and me from him for good… but now… I don't think so,"

"…how come…?" Willow asked.

Kagome smirked to herself, but only her mouth smiled. Everything else on her face whimpered exhaustion and defeat. "Because… he's not gone for good. Because he had a son, a son who apparently has more of his dad in him than I thought… do you know what genes are?"

"Yeah, they're fascinating, a scientist in Daoguo discovered them forty years ago when he was researching ancient texts," Willow said like a chirp. Kagome peered at her for a moment to check to see if her glasses didn't have rosy lenses. "Those are the things that determine why kids look like and act like their parents, it is yes?"

"Mostly, yeah…," Kagome replied. She shrugged and sighed. "…I'm sorry you had to see all of that… Daikon, mama… maybe not… emotions as a guide…hm. Could you help me up? I need some air," Kagome asked. With a heave Willow brought her to her feet, but they hesitated a moment when lights popped in Kagome's eyes. They made it over to the front door and walked out to the covered stairway. A round tempo rain rumbled around them.

"It sounds like there is a bad history in your family, it does," Willow said.

"Yeah… we have a lot of demons…," Kagome whispered. "Heh, funny, do you guys have that saying? When you say, 'I have a lot of demons,' to say I have a lot of problems?"

Willow stared upwards for a moment. "Uhm… I don't think so, never heard of it myself… But anyway… uh…Are you okay?"

Kagome was griping the rail of the stairway, her eyes burning fiercely into the humid evening. In the pause thunder rippled over head, and a few flourishes of color spun around the hills, hazy in the distance.

"…Yeah… I think I'm going to be fine," she eventually said.

"Was it another episode?"

"No…," Kagome muttered. She wiped at the wetness on her face and smiled slightly. "Not at all. It was an idea. Is the Great Library still open?"

Willow started for a moment before checking her watch. "Uhh… no, it closed a few minutes ago, it did."

Kagome nodded. "So the Mother's Compound is probably closed to visitors too?"

"Yeah…" Willow replied.

Kagome nodded again, sniffed a bit at the rain. "Okay… in that case, first thing's first, I should go talk to Sota. Then I'm going to make a list…,, No, I should call first…," and she turned on her heel and headed back inside the apartment.

"An idea? I don't get it, Kagome, what is this all the sudden?"

Kagome turned around energetically once again. "One last question before I answer yours - - do you know how to get in touch with the attaché of Iguto, Inuyasha?"

Willow's eyebrows rose well above her glasses lenses. "Wha- you mean the _PRINCE!?_ Oh no, I don't like where this is going!"

"Don't worry, he and I know each other, and I know he and Kaede know each other as well, I'll just ask her," Kagome said, heading for the phone.

"_Prime Mother_ Kaede, Kagome! She has a title, please have some respect - - the prince is one thing, but-"

"I have an idea about the origin of Demons, and thereby half-demons," Kagome said smiling. "And I think _the prince_ can help me figure this out. And if I know more about their origin, I might know more about why they were so desperate to take me into their countr- Hello? Yes, good evening, this is Kagome Higurashi… yes, thank you for your well wishes and help as my family has been adjusting to life here, thank you… yes… yes, again, thank you. I have a request - - may I speak with _Prime Mother_ Kaede? … It's urgent, but it is not an emergency…"

* * *

_Author's Note: Drama llama says howdy. I have the story set up in full now, but I am thinking that I'm going to try to scratch the chapter set up I have going right now. I like being able to have one entire chunk that all works well within itself, but it also takes me such a stupid long time to finish one chapter that I'm not sure its worth it to keep this method. I think it would be wiser to update more often with smaller chunks that won't necessarily have a clear place on their own, only gaining clarity later on. What do you guys think? I am quite open to suggestions on this thing.  
_

_Also… oh my god… this took so long to write… buuuuh…._

_New thing - - Preview of the next chapter!:  
In one word, LOVE. What is it? How does it come about? Kagome, Sango, Miroku, Inuyasha, and a host of other characters begin to test the waters of the terrifying and exhilarating feeling.  
Meanwhile, something strange continues to brew in the Demon countries, and Inuyasha and Kagome together find the first puzzle pieces of understanding the pain that is to come._


	9. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Was anything simple anymore? She had tried to talk with Sota, but it only ended up with him screaming at her so Kagome had given up. Her mother seemed so stressed out by her new work that Kagome didn't dare add to it by telling her what happened that evening with Willow and Hazel. She said all of this to this Daughter of Water, after going into her familial history.

"I really have to say, it's not often that people with your history are so willing and open to talk about everything that happened," The woman said seriously. Kagome shrugged her hunched shoulders.

"It doesn't make much sense to have secrets. More people just get hurt that way - - I think it'd just be better if we all lived openly…,"

The woman nodded and smiled lightly, but Kagome didn't feel like sharing it.

" I know we're almost out of time with this session, but I want to let you know that what you're going through is normal. People who have very painful childhoods almost universally come up with ways of escaping that pain: some wind up trying to drink it away or pretend nothing ever happened, or in your case try to keep themselves so busy that they can't think about it. And what you said before, that you often feel like you are boxed in and can't do anything… that is a classic sign that work is your coping mechanism."

Kagome nodded slowly. "So… what do I do?"

"You learn how to live in another way, which I think you won't have a hard time doing. There are plenty of mental exercises I can teach you in future sessions, assuming you want to keep going, but you also have already figured out a few of the right things to do on your own."

"Really?" Kagome looked up for the first time in quite a while.

"Yes – even though overwhelming yourself with projects and studies is detrimental to your mind as a whole, having one or two projects is good for everyone. It can help give you some direction in life while also giving you enough time to start taking on this challenge step by step."

"But… I don't have any projects," Kagome replied. "No one will let me get a job or help other people out by cooking or—"

"Whoa, hold up there. You consulted with the Prime Mother a few days ago with ideas about the origins of Demons. I think you might be the best person in the world to figure that out - - and I can't wait to hear what you discover." She said with a firm smile.

Kagome put on the 'I'm about to get photographed' smile for the woman and thanked her, arranging another session in a week. But she still felt very weird about this shrink business. Yes, she had studied some psychology on her own and knew that it wasn't bunk, but still… how was just _talking_ about something going to change it? Pills she could understand, but words? She sighed as she walked out of the room, down the brightly lit, pale blue hall of the Compound, and waited for the elevator.

When it arrived, the hunched over Kaede greeted her. "Blessed noon to ye, daughter of all. How fared thoust session?"

Kagome blinked before getting in the elevator. "You may want to use your demon tongue, Kaede, because I have no idea what you just said."

"*I said how are you.*"

"*Oh. Well. Um, I'm good I guess,*" Kagome replied letting some more air out of her lungs.

"*Good. You still want to go to the library?*"

"Hai, aun quiero ir al biblio…. whoa, sorry, wrong language," Kagome laughed.

Kaede stared at her for a moment. "*There are THREE _languages_ on Earth?*"

"*Oh no, there were thousands, I only know Japanese, English, and some Spanish and Korean," Kagome replied. Her head sunk immediately after her mouth closed: she probably just broke the old woman's brain. However Kaede simply nodded.

"*There has been some news about the other Aliens,*" The old woman said. "*Apparently they are causing havoc in Napan.*"

"What? *I thought all of the others stayed in Zaba? You know, because of the military and stuff? And Napan didn't even send an envoy to—*"

"Not all of thou's companions were in the military, Kagome," Kaede replied. "Some are officials from your homeland."

'_Oh right, I completely forgot about them…'_ "How did they wind up in Napan of all places?" She asked. Her answer was a shrug. Given the complexities of her life as it was, Kagome didn't have a problem with that answer.

Leaving the House of Water, Kagome and Kaede walked out into the central courtyard of the Mother's Compound. The marble white ground was wet from a morning rain but the blood red clouds above were flying away in the wind, letting mid-day sunlight warm Polis radiantly.

"I have duties amongst the House of Earth," Kaede said in her warbly voice. "But let this one know if ye need… no, one moment…," She fished around in her well hidden pockets for a few moment before pulling out a small talisman of sorts. It looked like a keychain but with a coral-hued jewel on the end of a red string with tooth-like beads. "This is the symbol of the Compound. Use this to enter when you want to, Kagome."

"Wow, thank you…," Kagome said, taking the jewel carefully lest she drop it and have it smash into a thousand tiny pieces. "What is it called?"

"It is just the key in, but it is based on an ancient object called the Jewel of Four Souls. That is the basis of the four Mothers and their respective houses, actually," The old woman said.

Kagome smiled and held it up to the light. Admiring it a few moments more, she slipped it into her pocket and let the Prime Mother to her business. As Kagome left she stole a peek at what was happening in the lower courtyard. Kaede was heading to an entire platoon of women were performing some kind of martial art form down there. By their yellow robes she guessed they were from the House of Earth, nuns who had devoted themselves to physical development and balance. She wondered if Miroku had ever attempted talking to these women… while Kagome felt herself dribble pitifully at their uniform large bust size, she also figured they would have no problem busting someone's head open if they dared cross them. She hurried for the large wooden doors in the front wall with the happy thought of Miroku getting what was coming to him.

She looked down at the piece of paper Willow had given her as directions to the Great Library. Step 1: Get to the train station. Simple enough. Kagome traveled to the station without bloodying herself this time, though she did wince when she saw the dark stains on the sidewalk. '_where I fell…_'

There was no train there, so she waited for one, boarded about ten minutes later, and looked at Step 2. "Get off at the lime," Kagome read aloud.

Her shoulders slumped. Leave it to the whimsy Daughter of Air to give wacko directions. She asked a pot-bellied man what this meant, but he similarly had no idea. He did take interest in her though, asking where she was from and something about octopuses Kagome didn't really want to talk about. She was contemplating jumping ship at the first station she got to when she pulled in at the second station of Golden Shore, and there, right in front was a bustling, sand-stone plaza with a huge billboard advertising Chullah's Fine Limes. She thanked the man in the middle of his sentence about some old war he'd been in and ran out of the train like rabbit with its tail on fire.

She looked down at her piece of paper again while standing near one of the small fountains dotting the plaza. "Step 3," she said aloud. "Look from the water's edge... Willow what the hell is this…," she said to herself, looking up and starting to tug on her hair nervously. But then she remembered the large bundle of hair that came out in her brush that morning, so she put her hand back down.

"Maybe she meant one of the fountains…?" She asked aloud and starting wandering through the beehive of noisy people. All around her were towers that rivaled those in Tokyo, but instead of the usual gray or black these were glimmering gold, turquoise and white, dark chocolate with tiny blobs of scarlet decoration… Everything seemed so determined to stand out beautifully here. "There's beauty in everything," She muttered to herself, focusing again on trying to find a fountain or something at a water's… edge…

Kagome spun around and looked back at the Train Station. There it was, Fair Voice Lake. The station was right at water's edge - - the Lime thing was just letting her know which station to get off at. Kagome back tracked to the station and looked down at the last step.

"Step 4: You'll see it... That's all? Oh Willow, are you trying to kill me…?" Kagome slumped forward again. She asked around again, but no one seemed to be going slow enough to hear her. Then she got an idea; Kagome ran over to a vendor in front of the giant lime sign who was, in fact, selling lemons.

"Hi there, do you know where—"

"How many lemons miss? I swear by them, they'll make the best cake you'll ever have, no lie! And feel them, your could shoot these lemons at something and make them blow up, you could, blow something up with lemons!"

Kagome's mouth hung open for a moment. "No… no, I don't want any lemons, I want to know where the Great Library is."

"No lemons! You're wasting my time lady, move outta line—"

"Please, just point me in the right direction and I'll be out of your hair," She pleaded. The young man clicked his tongue before jabbing his thumb towards one of the side roads near the plaza. She thanked the sour youth and ran off to the street…

…And saw nothing for about two miles down it. By this point the little sheet of instructions Willow _swore_ by was lying in shreds at the bottom of a gutter. "That woman…" Kagome muttered to herself, about to turn around and give up until she saw a discarded pamphlet on the ground with a map of the Great Library. She flicked through it and saw that it was apparently right on the water's edge if she turned right and kept going till she hit water.

Which she did, and had to lean on a lamp-post when she found it. In the front of the building stood a wide, tall sandstone tower, almost as large as a city block, but its stone looked ancient. It had three tiered roofs like a pagoda, and while the sloping tiles and tall vermillion support beams support that idea there was also something about the proportions that made her know it really wasn't. She crossed the street and the two, small, pale plazas in front of the Great Library where some people mingled on benches or kicked birds, hurrying up the hundred or so steps to the front door. It left her wondering how someone in a wheelchair would get up there.

Once up close Kagome saw that the building was _really_ ancient: there was so much silver built up along the walls, roof tiles and decorations that most were black and shimmering. There were two large doors in the front of the tower, each at least ten meters high. One had a white circle above it while the other had a violet circle. Kagome shrugged on the inside and headed inside, noting that it looked like there were two huge wings on either side of the tower.

The tower seemed like it was just the entryway, with several central desks manned by dozens of staff, each busying themselves by helping distraught students, curious children, or impatient middle-age somebodies. Kagome hugged herself as she walked up to one of the counters and waited, looking around at the marbled jade floor, the platinum geometric design on the ceiling, or the granite walls. Eventually a tanned woman with reddish brown hair came to help her.

"Uh yes, I'm here to work with the Prime Mother's research group? Kagome Higurashi," Kagome said, repeating what Kaede had told her to say several nights ago.

The woman flipped snatched a folder out of someone else's hands and flipped through it. "Higurashi?"

"Yes, Higurashi."

"Hunh, don't hear that name too often. Are you Napanese?"

"Uh… yeah, basically," Kagome sighed. While everyone annoyingly in Prialata and Dulas seemed to know her by heart (not to mention Tokyo way back when), she was starting to miss the easy name recognition. This woman worked in a library; didn't she keep up with the news that there were aliens wandering about the city?

"Hm… yes, Dr. Denem-Yamada's group is set up in room 805 the east wing, here is your key. Be sure to bring it back before closing!"

Kagome grabbed the key from the desk. "I will, thank you!"

East wing, east wing… which one was that? When she stopped and thought about it Kagome had no idea which way was north in this city. She walked around the desk and into the large section of building behind it. There were tables and chairs set up in a classic study manner with books and staircases lining the walls, but in the center of it all was an open-air courtyard.

"Yes, courtyard!" Kagome said, lunging for the door outside. Even though Beji probably didn't have a tilt in its axis quite like Earth, she knew the Republic of Ko was in the northern hemisphere, so if she just went outside and looked for the sun she'd know which way was south, and thereby she'd know which way was north. She jumped through the doors and into a garden she decided she'd have to find the time to admire in its own right. She looked up and found the sun right in front of her… so the way she had just come was north. She stopped for a moment and thought about Golden Shore and remembered that it was built up against a large mountain slope. Find the mountain, find north - - pretty convenient.

"Okay so…," She visualized a compass while facing the doors she just leapt through and picked out the wing on her right. With an accomplished smile she hurried back up the steps, turned on her heel and ran into the east wing. The floor changed the moment she moved into the new part of the library, becoming a grayish yellow that reminded her of moldy mustard. She looked at the key for room 805 and compared it to the room numbers of the private study carrels around her. They all started with zero.

Kagome looked up and groaned. "*…eight floors…?*"

While the stairs were easy to find - - she'd passed them went coming into the east wing - - she still hated them by the fourth floor. The steps were long and wide, made easy for people who were reading while walking but they made Kagome's running feet trip every other step. Once up one flight of steps she hurried down a long stone pathway, turn left, go up a few more steps, run down another pathway…

She was in no mood to deal with the sour-faced burly men who blocked her way on the seventh floor. "Sorry ma'am, this area is off limits today because of historic preservation efforts." One of them said in a monotone.

"Then why did one of the… hold on, let me catch my breath… whew, okay, then why did someone at the front desk give me a key to room 805?" Kagome replied.

"Go ask them for a change of room," Was the speaker's only reply.

Kagome huffed again. "Is this because that guy Inuyasha is up there? I'm part of—aaah!"

Kagome suddenly found herself on the floor with her arm behind her back and an elbow pressing down on her spine. She heard one of the other men speaking on a radio like device while the one on top of her was hissing something to the others.

"Wait! I know him, I'm the one who organized the research stuff! I – uff, I'm - - can't breathe!... Uff, Kagome! Higurashi! Onamae wa Higurashi Kagome desu!" She hollered at them. Haha, the Japanese did the trick: Immediately the man behind her eased up and she heard gasps of bewilderment and offense behind him. She pushed herself up a bit and caught some air but found herself flipped around and a very muscular, angry looking man growling at her with eyes like a lion's.

"How dare you dirty the tongue of the Silver Lord!" He growled. Kagome sat there speechless as the man's hair flared and started to shimmer gold and his teeth lengthened. Something sharp started digging into her back; she looked down at his hands and saw claws.

"Wait, please, ah! I'm Kagome, I'm a—I'm a friend of the Prince! Just- Just ask him! Please, ahhh!"

She heard the radio flare again, but there was no air, no air, no breath, the room darkened, a feline snarl… could she scream…?...

First came sound and then a thudding in her head. She found her fingers and touched the ground - - someone was yelling. Would they mind being quiet, she had been sleeping _so _well, it was nice to get some sleep for once…

'_Wait a minute,'_

Kagome's eye snapped open and she sat up only to wince and cough at the pain in her ribs. She heard Miroku's voice and looked up, finding him arguing with what appeared to be a suited lion standing on two legs next to a similarly dressed bull frog.

Right. Another planet. Demons. She was not high on acid… though that would explain _A LOT_ if it turned out she was.

Kagome pulled herself up and started hobbling towards Miroku. "Hey, hey stop, I'm all right, I'm okay…"

"Wha- Kagome, get over here! I repeat, that was never within your authority!" Miroku yelled at the lion. She wondered if the professor was suicidal. The lion demon leered at her but continued to bow his head and apologize.

"Hey, Miroku, what are you even doing here? - - No, no, wait, it wasn't his fault, he was just doing his job," Kagome wheezed out. "And I provoked them by talking in Japanese, or demon tongue, whatever. Let it go…"

The professor looked like he really didn't want to but he turned away stiffly. "You'd better pray your boss doesn't fire you when he finds out!" He called.

Kagome hung back for a moment, long enough to hear the bull frog croak, "*Uppity human egg-head… I keep telling you the Tome's right, they should learn respect, they should—*"

Kagome closed her eyes in frustration. "Frog-man, I just spoke in Demon tongue, what makes you think I can't understand you?"

There was a moment of silence before the Lion growled, "*What makes you think we care?*"

Kagome swallowed nervously before she could stop herself. She backed away slowly and ran after Miroku, looking back at the guards every now and then as they hurried up the steps. They never stopped watching her.

"Those two give me the creeps…," she muttered. Miroku looked over at her with a raised eyebrow, but shrugged.

"Oh, hey, you asked me why I'm here, right?" Miroku asked. Kagome blinked but nodded. "Prime Mother Kaede told me that one of the aliens had a theory about the origin of demons, so I told her I wanted in on it."

Kagome frowned. "What? Why?"

"That's something I've been studying independently for a while now - - that's why I was originally in Prialata actually, all that time ago… wow, its already been a couple of months since you got here. Its easy to forget all that in Ko, this place is a bubble, really."

"You were in Prialata studying the origins of demons? I thought you're a professor of history and… and something…"

"History and Biochemistry," Miroku offered.

Kagome nodded and then smiled. "Maybe you should get a doctorate in International _**Relations**_**.**"

"Why do you say… oh, I get it. Clever alien girl," He said.

Kagome just smiled in return. "So then why did you go to Prialata? Didn't you say that the wolf demon lands… its called… no wait, I know this… Sokoku! Didn't you say that was the holy land for demons or—"

Miroku shushed her quickly and hurried up the steps to the eighth floor, pointing to Simba and Frogger down below. Kagome caught her words and hurried up the steps behind him. This was starting to be too much - - was she in a city library or Hollywood spy movie?

Kagome's shoulders slunk a little bit. "No one here knows what Hollywood is…"

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing," Kagome muttered. "Just a bit of my soul dying, that's all."

"You should bring Sango around to our random encounters, by the way," Miroku replied. Kagome guessed it was because he didn't know how else to react.

"Uh, one she has a job, two I'm impressed you still know her name considering your female track record, and three… I suspect she'd prefer to do that only if she could bring a blunt, heavy object to threaten you with."

Miroku paled as they got up the last step. Kagome recalled his last altercation with her Floridian-Japanese friend involving the railing of a certain dirigible. She also remembered his weird behavior around that girl at the Limpics the other day, but Kagome decided to let that matter slide for the moment.

"So… um, can you _hint_ about Prialata?" She whispered.

Miroku eyed the two far below them once more and then the room 805 at the end of the walkway they found themselves on. He shuffled over close to the wall, still lined with books, and made a heart sign over his chest with his hands. He then let them drop down into his hands. "I'll just explain when we get in there, okay?"

Down the hall and through the door, Miroku waited until it was locked behind them before speaking, "Prialata is a very old city, one of the first on Beji. According to classic Mother texts, it was in Prialata that the Fire Parable was first written down. And the first _History of Beji_ was written about that time in Prialata, and that is the first human text that mentions Demons."

Woah. There was a lot in that answer that Kagome was going to have to have repeated. First thing's first, "Uh, what's the Fire Parable?"

"You don't know?—oh right, alien. The Fire Parable states—"

"The Fire Parable dictates," a dry voice from the small room ahead. "According to the Daughters of Fire, that all emotion is transitory but valid. One must acknowledge one's emotions, feel them, and then let them pass like smoke into the night."

Kagome peered around the paneled corner to see a certain white haired young man leaning back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. She looked up and saw the ceiling tiles had turned into a dartboard for pencils and pens.

"Hi there dog-boy," Kagome sighed.

"Hi there nerd," He replied.

Miroku glanced between the two. "Wait, which one of us is the Prince talking to?"

Inuyasha lifted an eyebrow. "Hah! Hadn't thought of that…"

"Nice, man," Miroku replied, moving forward and taking a seat next to several very old looking books. Kagome stayed standing and tilted her head to the side.

"You two know each other?"

Inuyasha and Miroku looked at each other and then back at her. "Yeah," They replied jointly.

There were so many questions whipping around Kagome's head – why did Demons turn up in Prialata first, the response of the demons downstairs, if she looked stupid in that moment – that she just shrugged and sat down. She'd learn eventually how the lecher and the pompous one came to know each other if it was really important.

"Okay, so… theories about Demon's origins… and why their governments were so determined to take a bunch of humans who fell out of the sky to their countries…," she turned her eyes to the half-demon. He yawned.

"…So, uh… since you're an ambassador of sorts, Inuyasha, I thought—"

"_Prince _Inuyasha," He interjected.

Kagome's face soured. "…that you might be able to enlighten us."

"Tough luck nerd," He replied. "But I don't know why they're after you."

Kagome blinked. "But… but you're their ambassador, or attaché - - whatever, I don't remember which one you are, but still you—"

He glared at her. "I. Don't. Know. … So go do something else."

She leered at him. "Hell. You know something and aren't telling us - -seriously, I studied diplomacy, its not like lying is unheard—"

"_Oh_, look at you, all _educated_…," Inuyasha sneered back. "I only came here as a favor for the old gas bag so she'd have one less to lord over me. That's all."

"Did you just give me crap for having an education? You? A _Prince_ who, oh yeah, that's right, just _interrupted me_ to make sure I used your title?"

"That's not my title. I am His Imperial Highness, Crown Prince Inu—"

"I don't care!" Kagome jutted in.

"-yasha, Duke of Kanasaiya Sands, Under Whose Rights Must be Declared as Decreed from the Emperor of Silver, Palliator of the Royal House of Dog and Wolf, Bearer of the Dog's Fang."

"…You done?" Kagome spat out.

The half-demon turned to Miroku. "See what I meant about humans? No respect, especially wome—"

He might have completed his sentence if he didn't suddenly find a table in his mouth. Kagome seethed over him with hard fists. "You…! You just…! Ugh! I will not condemn you, but ohhh I wish I could!"

"Was that really necessa…" Miroku trailed off after he got a taste of Kagome's death glare, after which he sank into his chair and tried to die.

"Don't even get me started on _you_ lover boy. Don't you even know he was talking about you too right then!?..." She hissed. She stood there for a moment before huffing, "And after all I did, even those guys… just…clearly this was a waste of time. I'll continue this on my own."

She swept out the door as Inuyasha pushed the table back up and readjusted his jaw. "See what I mean? Humans should be taught their place so they don't get hurt." He bit out. Inuyasha looked over at Miroku who rubbed a hand through his hair.

"You disagree with me?" Inuyasha barked.

"No, no, I know you're plenty stronger then me…" Miroku sighed.

"Dude, you just did that thing you do when you get nervous, with you're hair. You think that insubordinate little school-girl is right?!"

Miroku stared at the wall with his arms crossed. Inuyasha heaved a few heavy breaths before the professor finally spoke. "You know, Prince, you didn't always make me say your title instead of your name. And I know you hated it when the King used to do it to you, and so did… no, never mind that. The fact is I shouldn't have to be scared you're going to rip my head off just because I say your name!"

"Well I learned the right way to see the world, all right!? You gotta respect power if you don't want to get something blown off you!"

Miroku shook his head slowly. "That argument's stupid Inuyasha and you know it."

"You will show your respect and refer to me by my TITLE!"

"Since when were you your brother!? Since when were you Sesshomaru!?"

Inuyasha jerked back with wide eyes. "Wha… Hey, I'm not like him, all right?"

"You definitely sound like him." Miroku shot back.

The prince stood back and leaned against the wall, trying to push down the red that was threatening his sight. Light from a small window hit Miroku's watch and glared Inuyasha's eyes for a moment, but then he focused in.

Miroku's hands were sweaty and they were shaking. Inuyasha watched the professor's chest and saw how fast he was breathing and how he wouldn't look his old playmate in the eye. The half-demon swallowed and looked down at the ground.

'_He's terrified of me… because I'm a monster… I'm like brother…'_

But in that moment something knocked against the inside of the Prince's brain. It was a memory, sending him back to a wet rooftop after a Typhoon broke up.

_"I mean there is more to life than the material. Yes, the government of Zaba has given us all of these things for free, but it would be nice if they didn't treat us like fools or look at us like we're from outer space - - well, we are kind of from outer space, but not really, just from Earth, where you guys are all from! I mean… okay, that was a bad simile, but you get my point!_

_"They look at us, the doctors, the nurses… when they give things to us, the way they look at us makes me know that they think we should feel forever indebted to them, as if they are inherently better than us._

Another memory followed

_"Look," The alien girl said, pointing out towards the dinner party. "Even if they treat us differently, these people still enjoy sunsets like me, and they still help each other set up for dinner, and they still try to share their time in the company of people they enjoy…" She brought her hand back to the wall, dropping her head down to the ledge as well and letting it tilt and rest. "This place and these people are still beautiful."_

_Inuyasha scoffed."What's so beautiful about a city that just got rained on and people slipping around on a roof like idiots?"_

_"Don't you know?" Kagome replied with a sly lilt and smile. "Beauty is everywhere."_

"Excuse me as I go get the girl who might have the only lead to understanding what the hell is going on in Asigo," Miroku said, jumping out of his seat and out the door. Inuyasha watched him go but said nothing. He looked over at the window a moment and then downward, tapping the desk a few times with one of his claws.

* * *

_Author's notes: My… this is starting to have a Pride and Prejudice feel to it. Only much more violent. _

_I know I wrote that this chapter was going to start delivering some fluff - - sorry! It takes a bit more to get to the fun parts - - we're right at the cusp of it, you won't have to wait much longer! I'm choosing to do things kinda slow right now so you guys can get a good feel for what Polis is like as a city - - that way in the future when people are running around spray painting rabbits on buildings y'all have a world built up in your head to refer to. Also, I am a big fan of character development and keeping them human in their emotions, how fast they get attached to other people, etc. etc. _

_But anyhow, I've decided to write shorter chapters now. My limit is 10 pages single spaced and then I have to update… though I did just break my new rule by bringing it to 12… Sigh. I'll work on it._

P.S. – I just realized that a few chapters back I misspelled Hazel as Hanzel repeatedly. Sorry everyone! I'm watching my fingers closer this time around! - - also, I've found that my spelling is atrocious, especially on important new word like Luanda versus Luganda. Sigh. I'll put 'fixing spelling errors in all the chapters' on my list of things to do.

_P.P.S.- I hope anyone here has played Portal 2 and caught my lemon reference. Or just Portal, and caught the Cake reference. Me = dork._

_Chapter preview!  
Love. Yup, that's the theme for the next few (mini) chapters, but this next one is going to see Inuyasha and Kagome actually just being around each other as opposed to finding each other at low points… or beating each other into low points. It's also going to see some Miroku and Sango… uh, head butting. But in a good way. I can't wait to start laying down the foundation of good fluff. ^_^_


	10. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Miroku caught up with Kagome halfway to the seventh floor of the Library. "Whoa, hey, wait up!"

"What's the point of researching all this if the one person who has the most important bits of information won't give them up!?" She fumed, continuing to stalk towards the next set of steps until Miroku grabbed her arm. "This is useless, do I have to do everything on my own _again!?_"

"Again?" Miroku repeated. "Nah, Kagome breathe for a second, is this really what you want to do? Do you really want to walk away so fast?"

She was ready to bite back something wise, but a little bell in her head told her to hang on for a second, to wait to say what couldn't be unsaid. She stood there on the balcony for a little longer and let out a long breath: she didn't realize she'd been keeping it in.

"I just… pbbbt…," She let out another long breath and wiped her hands on her face.

"I know he's a jerk, okay? But he's a good guy deep down, just… things have been tough for him?" Miroku offered.

Kagome sighed again, but lighter and crossed her arms. "Whatever is in his past may explain why he's a classist brute but it doesn't excuse his behavior."

Miroku fiddled with his mouth for a moment. "No, I guess not…,"

"And seriously, he was talking down to YOU too! Granted, I don't know how you two know each other, but still you seem like friends, and… well…," Kagome uncrossed her arms, made fists and put them right next to each other. "Friends are equal!"

"Not really, he's much stronger—"

"Ugh, I _know_ that not everyone has the same talents or abilities, but that doesn't mean we _have_ to rank each other based on them. A friend is a friend is a friend - - you treat each other as equal people otherwise its not a friendship…" She let her hands drop. "Otherwise its something else… like a master and servant or a… a patient and a therapist."

Miroku nodded again. "Another good point… would it make you feel any better to know that I told him off before I came to get you?"

Kagome pursed her lips. "A little." But she did start thinking, remembering to how the half-demon was able to banter with her in Prialata and his attempts to at least be civil while on the Dirigibles… maybe…

"Oh god I threw a table at him," Kagome muttered.

Miroku blinked. "Yeah, you did…"

Inuyasha said nothing when the others returned, neither in apology or in anger. Kagome cleared her throat before saying, "People who have a bad childhood, or just a traumatic event in their life can have their brain chemistry and, eh, psychology permanently changed, right?"

Miroku nodded. Inuyasha raised his eyebrows for a moment before nodding slowly.

"Okay… in _English_," She paused and glared at the half-demon. "…there is a saying that if you've had a bad time growing up then you _have demons_. So what if, a long, long time ago, the first demons came about because, somehow or another, they were traumatized?"

Inuyasha blinked. "Is that really all you've got? You thought of 'people have demons' and guessed that the first demons were humans who were fucked up in the head?"

"Psychologically distressed, yes, and I know it sounds stupid," Kagome shot back. "But think about everything else we know about the origins of demons. From what you said Miroku we have _recorded_ history of humans before we had recorded history of demons. And its obvious that demons are somehow or another related to humans."

"The hell we are!" Inuyasha spat out. " Don't you dare dirty the—"

"IF DEMONS AREN'T GENETICALLY RELATED TO HUMANS THEN THEY WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO BREED WITH EACH OTHER!" Kagome shouted.

The room was silent.

Very… very… silent.

Finally Miroku slapped his forehead. "Mother of water, why didn't I think of that! It's so obvious…!"

"Wait, what?" Kagome muttered. She looked at the two men, one quietly berating himself while the other, royal one sat there slack jawed with his eyes wide open. "How could you not know… you studied biochemistry! You're a professor! How could you NOT figure that out!?"

"We're… genetically…" was all the half demon could muster. Miroku had moved on to pounding his skull against the table.

Kagome took a deep breath. This was going to be a loooooong study session.

* * *

"You know, life is really complex," Sango said, taking a sip of her banana smoothie, a flavor she and Kagome were quite delighted to see existed in Polis. "When you read books or see movies… or saw movies I guess… the writers give you a single stream of story to follow. But in real life we don't know what's important and what isn't. There are general basics, like your family… or food or love, but aside from that you never know what's going to be important later on."

Kagome nodded as she walked along with her friend, sipping on her own Kwis Kiss flavored smoothie. "Yeah I know. It's like that at the library… I keep skimming through all these old books but I don't know what I should really read and what I shouldn't."

"That's not exactly what I meant…," Sango replied.

"Okay, what did you mean?"

"I mean…," Sango slowed a bit as they walked on along the sidewalk, enjoying an evening without rain in the city on the lake. "You never know what is _really_ important. Like is it important that I got a banana smoothie today? Probably not, but you never know. To the person who brought bananas here to this planet it might have been important to bring them just for food, but to me its important because it reminds me of my home… and see, that's a whole other kind of importance! So you … you never know. You just have to live in the moment and be aware of everything… Carpe Diem."

Kagome nodded again. "So… it was long day on guard duty, huh?"

Sango's head slumped. "Ugh… the more I go there the more I think I'm paying taxes in neurons. There's just… nothing to do! Being the anti-shop lifting device for a small corner store isn't exactly cognitively stimulating."

"Hm…nothing to do… I think I can understand that…," Kagome replied quietly, taking another swig of her drink.

"Seriously, you have no idea how much I want to help you research this stuff with you… even if the lecher-professor is there. At least that's something important! All I'm doing is standing around all day for a paycheck… sure its easy money but I feel like… blah…"

"Why not quit or look for something else?" Kagome offered.

"If I quit I have no money, and what else can I look for?"

"Mm… security guard at the Library? Or maybe enroll at the Police Academy here, that's more up your alley."

"I was a pilot in the military, Kagome, that doesn't exactly translate well to police work… But I'll look around I guess..." She trotted slightly to catch up with Kagome. A young, brunette man riding a bicycle came up toward them, and Kagome watched him stare at Sango and smile toothily. Her friend blushed and looked down as the man passed, but they nudged each other and start giggling.

"Maybe we need to find _you_ a pilot!" Kagome sang. She was swiftly clocked in the head with a smoothie straw.

* * *

One week turned into two, which turned into three, and then, one day, miraculously, Kagome woke up to see she had spent one month in one place and had been able to roam around freely the whole time. She stretched as she pulled herself out of bed, knocking a book she'd been reading the night before onto the floor. Kagome looked out of her bedroom window, glad she had removed the curtains that once covered the morning sun.

"Wait a second…," Kagome mumbled. Her brain sharpened in a few moments, recalling what she had dreamed the night before.  
…Nothing. She couldn't remember any of it. No nightmares.

A smile infected her face and spread her limbs. She jumped out of bed and ran to the mirror in her bathroom. The dark circles under her eyes were visibly dimmer. She snatched up her brush and pulled it through her hair once. A little came out, but it was NOWHERE as much as had come out over a month before. She set her brush down and smiled at herself in the mirror. Maybe all of those sessions with Daughter of Water had been worth it after all…

There was no way she was going to waste a day like this. Kagome ran back into her room and pulled on an orange tank top with white and plum ribbons plaited into the sides. Even though the ribbons had a tendency of getting snagged in things she still liked how elegantly they trailed behind her, especially when she wore… there it was, her favorite white skirt. She pulled it up to her hips and swirled around in it once, reveling in how light it was around her knees. But then… she panicked and threw her head between her legs.

"*Oh thank goodness…*" Her legs were shaved.

She grabbed a breakfast of cooked rice with a bit of sausage plus a fruit smoothie from a vender she found on her walk to the train station. This time she decided to try a new flavor, something called 'Linny' that undeniably had mint somewhere in it, and maybe honeydew?

Polisian mornings looked just like those in Kyoto it turned out: honey-colored light as the sun rose and followed by cerulean blue in midmorning with large cotton clouds going about their business in the sky. Kagome was actually starting to like the red tinge and sparkle around the white clouds' edges. She was beginning to read them too: Dark red clouds were collapsing and were going to finish raining soon, while pink clouds were the ones that were going to rain any moment. White clouds with red edges were still building up, so it would be a few hours before anyone would need to break out an umbrella.

Even on a Friday morning the Great Library was well populated. Kagome grabbed her key from the front desk girl and headed up to her workout regimen. At the seventh floor she huffed a hello to Frogger and Simba - - who, as always, leered back - - and paused on the eighth floor to breathe. She grabbed some tissues out of the yellow backpack she brought with her, patted herself down to get rid of most of the sweat, and strutted down to room 805.

…And no one was there. "That's weird...," She muttered, throwing her book bag down on the table. Usually dog-ass-prince-boy and Dr. Grope were here bright and early… but now that she thought about it they had been lagging a bit since the start of this week. Some people around Polis had been saying that Lover's Limpics were on everyone's minds. As if that explained the sudden sluggishness of the city. Kagome let out a resentful sigh before sitting down on her chair, breaking it, falling backwards and slamming her head into the wall.

"*OW! What the hell!... Ugh…stupid chair… well, the chair's not alive so I guess it's not that stupid…*" Kagome muttered, kicking her legs about to try to get herself up. Eventually she rolled over, got on her knees and stood up, flipping her hair up to get it out of her face.

Dog-ass-prince-boy stood in the doorway holding a cup of something. What it was didn't matter. What did matter were his very high eyebrows and slightly red face.

Kagome could only hear her heartbeat, which had the rhythm of an Irish jig, for way too long.

"…How much did you see…?" She eventually croaked out. Inuyasha started and his mouth opened, and a tiny drop of drool slipped out. He swiped at it but it was too late.

"Oh…. Fuck," she sighed. She turned, kicked the broken chair over into a corner, and grabbed another chair.

"Hm? Did someone call me?" Miroku said, poking his head into the room, bumping into Inuyasha and making him crane not to spill his drink. Kagome stared at the two of them, shook her head and started laughing to herself.

"Really Miroku? Do you respond to any form of the word 'fornication'?"

"Oh I respond _very_ well," He replied with a wink. She watched as he moved around to his usual place at the table, and the hot glare Inuyasha was giving him - - _Thank goodness Dr. Grope didn't see anything, he'd never let me live it down._

"Keh," Inuyasha straightened his elaborate military-kimono clothes, which were brown, red and white today. "Seriously Miroku, have some self-respect,"

"Seriously, Inuyasha, if you knew what I had you'd know I don't have to worry about self-respect," The professor shot back. Kagome held her breath and watched the half-demon… do nothing. He didn't react to the fact that there was no title at the start of his name. He stood there and stared for a moment, but then he moved towards another chair at the end of the table.

"I do know what you have. You should worry."

"I meant seen it _recently_ - - swimming in the palace baths when we were five doesn't count."

"Oh yeah? I beat you back then and I can still beat you—"

"OKAY!" Kagome yelled. "Okay… how about we get back to research?"

By lunch time not much movement had been made: Miroku found another archivist's journal from a place called Dezeray, a small sliver of a country on the southern border of Iguto, but all he found were some strange references to the Clarence. Kagome searched through historic census results from Napan from the years 914 to 902, but it didn't help - - demons were still present in Napan in that time period too, and there weren't records from before the Dark Time. Inuyasha decided to look into the reasons why two countries called Ala and Viv have fought against each other off and on since they were created, but the most he got was a reference to the Silver Emperor. A few hours after getting a few meat filled biscuits that tasted kind of like honey, the Kagome's head was slamming into her open book repeatedly, Inuyasha looked like he was going to blow a blood vessel, and Miroku stared out the window.

"You know… how about we call it a day early?" Miroku put forth, closing the notebook in front of him.

"What? But it's only five o'clock!" Kagome replied, but Inuyasha was closing his book too. "Come on, we made so little headway!"

"Everyone needs some rest now and then," Miroku replied. "Break the monotony? Besides, this means I can get to see Ms. Taijiya at her new academy."

"…Miroku, that REALLY isn't a good idea," Kagome said.

But it was too late, the professor already had have of his things placed away in his bag. Inuyasha stuck the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the desk. Kagome slumped back in her chair and pouted for a moment, but Miroku started organizing the census records she was looking over, so guilt compelled her to move.

They left the library and got on the train. The three got off at the Blue Bird station farther along on Gold Shore and Miroku took the lead on the sidewalk, leaving Kagome and Inuyasha to follow as the sun began slipping behind the western mountains.

"So how long has Sango been attending the police academy?" Miroku asked, walking backwards to face his talking partners. Inuyasha and Kagome watched him deftly move around oncoming pedestrians like he had a third eye.

"About a week now. She said there is a pretty thorough vetting process," Kagome replied.

"Good, good…" The doctor said, turning around and walking straight-forward again. "Plenty of handcuffs to use in there…"

"You're a pervy old bastard, you know that?" Inuyasha shot out.

"Hey!" Miroku protested. "I'm not _that_ old…"

Kagome smiled and shook her head. Though as they were walking along, she wondered, "Is it really okay for you to be walking around out in the open like this Inuyasha?"

He sniffed. "Yeah, why not?"

"Oh, I don't know, because you're a Prince. Shouldn't have a security detail like the ones in the library, or maybe dress less… ostentatious? I'm surprised reporters haven't mauled you yet."

"Keh, Polis isn't like that. They've got anti-nuisance laws so reporters can only jump you inside public buildings."

Kagome frowned. "Anti-nuisance laws? That sounds suspiciously arbitrary - - Take a right up here, Miroku, I think we're almost to the academy."

The professor followed her instructions while Inuyasha crossed his arms. "Well those arbitrary laws are the things that have kept journalists from attacking you and your family, so don't bite the hand that feeds you," the white-haired one said.

Kagome rolled her eyes. "You're using that phrase wrong - - no one is giving me an aggregate benefit, it's just something to force a deleterious social strata!"

"Careful Inuyasha," Miroku called out. "She knows big words."

The half-demon glared at the professor but threw it back at Kagome. "Well maybe the meaning of 'biting the hand that feeds you' has changed in a thousand years!"

"No it hasn't," Miroku chimed in.

"Shut UP Miroku!"

"Nope. Also, its been two thousand five hundred for her."

Inuyasha growled again. "Well do you two want this place to be like Dulas instead, where you can't take a piss without thirty photographers zooming in on—"

"Point made!" Kagome yelled. "But I still can't help thinking that someone could use that law to get rid of political opponents or to limit freedom of speech or the press."

"No one has yet," Miroku called.

"…that you know of," Kagome replied.

"Paranoid much?" Inuyasha shot in.

"I dunno, complacent much?" She shot back.

"Okay children, don't make me send you to detention…," Miroku called from in front. The half demon and alien continued to stare each other down, but after a few moments they huffed, crossed their arms, and looked decidedly in the other direction. This resulted in Kagome walking into a wall and Inuyasha smacking his face into a light-pole.

Miroku trotted back to them amidst their curses. "So the brightest minds in all of Beji, trying to figure out the origin of demons, can't even look to see what's in front of them?"

"Shut the hell UP Miroku!" Inuyasha fired out, taking a swipe at him. Kagome rubbed her shoulder where the hit was hardest, but she noticed they were gathering a crowd of worried onlookers, so she ran up behind the boys and pushed them onwards. They turned the corner and found themselves in front of the police academy, but Kagome felt something strange beneath the fabric of Inuyasha's clothing. "Whoa, what is this?"

"Get your hands offa me!" the prince snapped as he batted her away. He hurried on ahead and lept up the stack of stairs leading to the entrance of the academy, where a miniature Sango could be seen raising her hand as if to wave and then slumping her shoulders.

"Hm? What is it Kagome?" Miroku asked.

Kagome stared after Inuyasha, her palm open to the wind. "There was… something on his back."

"On his back?"

Kagome thought for a moment longer and shook her head, taking off to see Sango, though she slowed as she got closer and felt the death glare aimed at her.

"You brought… the professor…?!" Sango seethed.

"Uhh… yeah…?" Kagome replied, her head sinking down as if channeling a turtle.

"And what have I said about bringing him within shooting distance…?" Sango said.

"…That you can't shoot him because there are no bullets on this planet and you need to save them?" Kagome said with the weak smile. Sango continued to glare at her friend, but eventually she sighed and let her entire body slump forward. "Fine… let's just get this over with…"

"Oh ho ho, and how are you today my lovely… Kagome I don't understand that gesture."

Sango's head popped up to catch Kagome's hand moving back and forth in front of her neck, and then fly away behind her back. The Floridian rolled her eyes and huffed her way down the stairs. "Come on Prince Inuyasha, let's get out of here."

"You don't have to call me Prince, you know. It sounds stuffy…" the half demon said, trotting behind her. Watching them go, Kagome put her hands on her hips as a frown found her lip.

"Well isn't that nice! We had to fight with him tooth an nail for weeks to get him to stop insisting we talk up to him and here he is getting all chummy with Sango…," Kagome muttered. Miroku stood next to her and laughed.

"That's just Inuyaha's way, Kagome," he replied. "He hates to loose face, especially when he knows someone else is right about something. Once he thinks he's come up with the answer to something on his own he adopts it."

"I'm still not impressed - - its so… just childish! It's ridiculous!"

"Maybe he is a little childish and ridiculous, but you would be too if you had his history."

Kagome was tempted to snap something out about how she seriously doubted a near invincible prince could have something as nasty as her own life, but the rancid words got caught behind her teeth. She stood there for a moment and felt the frown on her face loosen. "…What kind of history has he had?"

"Nuh-uh, not my place to say. Besides I have at least one person here who is determined to see me dead, I don't need another," Miroku replied with a laugh. Kagome smiled slightly, nodded, and started following the fuming duo down the stairs, Miroku at her side.

"They are something else…," In that a moment a jolt thundered through her mind. "Hey, do you think something is… _developing_ between them?"

Miroku glanced down at the two, who looked reminiscent of two teapots billowing steam simultaneously. "Nah," he said. "They're just becoming good friends."

Kagome raised an eyebrow. "How can you tell?"

"Their body language is all wrong. They're not matching each other's walking pace, they don't care when their arms flail wildly in front of each other, they're not leaning towards each other… Plus she's really not his type anyway."

Kagome looked down at the pair. They seemed to be really enjoying mouthing off with each other… she wasn't wholly convinced by Miroku, but she let the matter slide. They caught up to the others who proceeded to leer at their respective hate targets. When discussion on where to go next went nowhere, Miroku jumped in front of them all.

"Okay, you know what? How about this: we all admit that we've pissed each other off somehow. I've angered Ms. Taijiya by… well by existing basically—"

"By acting like a sex-obsessed, stalking lecher!" Sango shot at him. Miroku closed his eyes and nodded, his hands up, palms open.

"…I guess I did… it wasn't fair of me to treat you like that, or any woman really. I don't plan to try to excuse myself, just to explain myself… I've been a bachelor for a long time, and I have to say that I like women. Especially physically. But that… it means I'm not very good at connecting my emotions to my hands or my words," He opened his eyes, and from Kagome's perspective it looked like the only person in his mind was the lieutenant standing in front of him. "I did you a disservice, and I wish I hadn't."

Aside from the chatter of other pedestrians, cars and bikes, it was silent. Kagome leaned a bit to try to see what was on Sango's face, very warily.

"…Is this some Polisian or Napanese thing you do when you're trying to… make yourself look better?" She said carefully.

"Not really," Miroku said, not taking his eyes off of her. "I know I messed up…"

Sango nodded slowly. "Then… I guess… hm," Sango looked over to Kagome for a moment, then back to Miroku, who clenched his jaw. Kagome knew the man was a consummate actor, but that one moment it was just him there; no pretext, no game. "I guess… I've been… kind of unfair to you… though you still shouldn't go about flattering women when they've told you to buzz off, nor should you be groping them randomly."

Miroku swallowed. "I… don't think I've had very many great male role models."

Sango nodded once and let out some air. "I think I've had a few too many run ins with not so great male role models too…"

The relative silence returned. As the sun hurried to finish its set on the day, Miroku finally looked up to Inuyasha. "Man, I think you owe her an apology."

"Wha-!?" The prince looked over at Sango and the two raised an eyebrow. "But I didn't- - you were the pervert!"

"To _Kagome…_," Miroku replied in an obvious tone.

The prince whirled on her, then back to the professor, then back to her, but pointing this time. "But she's impossible!"

Sango joined in. "Yeah Inuyasha… Kagome is the one you're always going off about, but I don't think she deserves it."

"…He's been talking about me behind my back?" Kagome asked. Sango smiled weakly and shrugged. Kagome's gaze darted back to the Prince. '_I'm really getting tired of this…_'

"Hey, you humans can be all sappy if you want, but I think I'll check out of the love-fest," The half-demon said, turning and walking back the way they had came. Kagome rolled her eyes. "Wait here, I'll try to figure this out,"

"Uh, but you're the one he's being stupid about," Sango pointed out.

"Then I'm in all the better position to make him do something stupid and get to the bottom of this!" Kagome called over her shoulder as she chased after the huffy white haired man.

"*Leave me alone wench!*" Inuyasha shouted as she approached.

"Wench? Wow, I haven't heard THAT word in a long time…," She muttered.

He whirled. "*Are you brain dead! I said leave me the fuck alone!*"

Kagome sighed and opened her mouth to say something, but she trailed off. She looked around for a moment as if wishing someone could help her, but she threw her hands into the air limply and shook her head.

"*What?*"

"What did I do to… make myself look like I am not worthy of… politeness?" She asked. Her eyes were open and true, and for a moment Kagome wondered if she looked like Miroku had when he had been confronting the ill will between him and Sango. Inuyasha didn't respond, so she went on.

"You don't have to like me, alright? You don't even have to help out on the origins project if you don't want to. Me and Miroku will manage," She said, feeling something escape from her like a deflating balloon. "I don't want to be around someone who I'm pissing off all the time for reasons I don't understand."

"*You think you're so damn _important…_*" He seethed. "You think I can't see through you're little act right now? Oh sure, you'll play the humble peace card, make me look like an ass-hole, and then claim all the credit when you really just want me to jump off a cliff. I bet you—"

"Whoa, since when do I don't like you?" Kagome interrupted.

"Since forever!"

"Not since I first met you back on the top of that hospital!"

"You hated me then!"

"No, I argued with you," Kagome replied. "People can have disagreements and still respect each other, they can still like them."

Inuyasha stood back and shook his head like a bug flew into his mouth. "They mean the same thing. Arguments mean someone hates you."

"No, they don't. I happen to think you're pretty cool, actually...," Kagome said with a slight blush. "You are annoying when you try to force other people to use your title or make us admit how much better demons or half-demons are, and you're blunt and coarse and talk like a bully, but you're also wicked smart and compassionate—"

"Yeah right, now I know you're lying," He scoffed while turning.

"You sat with me when I was not doing that well on the 'loon trip to Dulas," Kagome pointed out. Inuyasha stopped turning but he looked even angrier now. "So yeah… I don't hate you, alright? But if you don't want to work on this project with me, that's fine, its not the end of the world."

"…But I want to know," he replied. "I can't just sit here and do nothing while my brother fucks up the country. It's not my country, so don't go thinking I'm being all chivalrous or pitying me or something; I don't care about it, but I won't let him win this."

"Win _what?"_ Kagome asked. Again there was no answer. "Inuyasha… you try so hard to distance yourself… from Miroku and Kaede, and me I guess, and from the things that are happening in your home. I can hear it in your words, and your tone… but… if someone is _trying_ to distance themselves from something, doesn't that means that it actually is important to them?"

"Why do you even care about all of this!?" He hissed at her. "You should just keep your nose out of other people's business, just leave us alone and go back to where-ever you came from!"

"I'm from another planet."

"Then go back."

"On what, a bicycle?" Kagome shot back. But she wasn't angry when she said it, just loud. She shook her head again slowly and pushed her hair back over her shoulder, carefully leaning back against the safety netting of the Arch Bridge. "And I _care_… because… I'm a person. You're a person. We're in this life together… you don't always need a reason to care."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "You sound like my father…"

Was she ever going to get through to this guy? Was he ever going to stop being so evasive, so dogmatic?...'_No… probably not…'_

"Inuyasha…," Kagome sighed again. He glanced at her for a moment but turned his attention somewhere else, hands firmly in his pockets. "Just… go…"

He glared at her once more, turned on his heel and stomped off down the sidewalk, probably out of her life for good. Kagome watched him for a little while, wondering what his life would be like… devoid of intimacy, kindness, meaningful accomplishment… maybe she did pity him, but she was just sad to see him living that way. '_It's not like I think I'm better than him, I've got my own mental mess to clean up, but still… why is he walking back?'_

Inuyasha stopped right in front of her, finger pointing at her warmth-containing crossed arms. "You're wrong about everything! I don't distance myself from anything, not like life would let me! Its not all feasts and crowns being a royal you know! And… and you should go back to where you came from!"

She sighed. "I repeat, how?"

He growled in frustration and stomped off again, but he only made it half as far before whirling right around carrying his pointer finger like a gun.

"And you're wrong about…!" Inuyasha's mouth gaped like a fish for a few moments trying to snag back the words that he was going to say.

Kagome stood there quietly watching him. Her mind began replaying images of the times they had interacted together, and the times she'd watched him be around Miroku or Sango or Kaede… He was always terse. Blunt. Awkward around emotions. And like she said, _distant_… even from himself.

'_This… is one messed up person…_' She thought. For a few moments she felt like she was back in Kyoto, listening to a ravaged soul who had come to the temple in search of guidance or an answered prayer. '_No… this is someone who needs help and won't let himself seek it…_'

"Inuyasha…," Kagome began quietly. "I don't really know… what to do or say to hel—I mean, to let you know that I don't think badly of you. But maybe if you stick around with us you'll figure that out on your own."

He continued to stare at her angrily, but something was breaking inside. Inuyasha's gaze flicked to farther down the bridge where Sango and Miroku waited before going back to hers.

"I don't get you at all…" He finally muttered.

"I get that a lot," Kagome replied with a smile, thinking about how estranged she'd been at school on Earth. "And you don't really have to get me."

"… Miroku's been my friend since we were kids, and Sango's got a military mind, but…"

"I repeat, you don't have to understand me," Kagome said, letting herself smile again.

He was quiet for a few moments, staring deliberately at the water behind her, beyond the bridge.

"*…but I want to…*" He eventually said.

Kagome's eyes went wide. '_Hunh. Wasn't expecting that answer._'

"Uh…*What part do you want to understand?*"

He glared at her for a moment, but his gaze softened. "…That thing that you said back on the top of the hospital… That everything's beautiful or something."

"There is beauty in everything," Kagome repeated. Inuyasha nodded. Miroku and Sango seemed like they were walking in the two's direction, prompting Inuyasha to speak again.

"Why are you so interested in knowing the origin of demons?"

She blinked once. "Oh, well… I don't know what demons are. I want to know from a scientific standpoint… and I also want to know why the demon countries were so determined to have the earthlings come live in their lands. It makes no sense to me."

Inuyasha nodded, doing another visual check to see where the others were. "You're nosy and opinionated and annoying, but you're… well, you're also really smart for a human girl—I mean, you're really smart,"

"Nice save."

"And… the demon countries still want your family, specifically you. My brother didn't want the other humans, he just wanted you and he won't tell me why. He won't let me return to Iguto without you, but I'm not going back until I know what he's planning. The old gas bag Kaede thinks he is planning to purge the country of all of his political opponents, but the more I'm looking into the origins of demons the more I think that… the more I think you and Miroku are on to something. Oh, and you're kinda pretty. There, now tell the professor to get off my back." He said, having turned slightly red by the end. Inuyasha turned and stalked towards Miroku and Sango who were only a few meters away. Kagome stared after him, her mouth wise open; That is the appropriate reaction when you've been thoroughly shocked on multiple levels.

* * *

_Author's notes:_

_If you want a song to describe the feel for Polis find the song called Lento by Julieta Venegas. ^_^_

_I have such a nerdy style of writing._

_I feel like this is the end of the first large chunk of the story as a whole. How many big chunks are there? About 5 or 6. _

_Fyi, I already have chapter 9 halfway done. More cotton candy is on the way guys… plus the pieces that give foundation to the second large chunk of le tale. That will have to do for your chapter preview. Mwahaha, the plot will thicken my dears!_


	11. Chapter 9

So… I've been sick lately. I've had time to put more into this chapter than I usually allow myself. So have fun with the behemoth!

Chapter 9

"Heat, fuel, and oxygen are needed for fire," Kaede's microphoned voice boomed, bouncing off the tall, triangular walls of the Mother's Temple of Fire. Kagome thought they were vaguely reminiscent to those in Prialata, but these walls were built of wood, steel and glass, all pointing together at the top as if the giant building was a huge flame. Red clouds swirled above them, trying fruitlessly to dampen the hundreds of hearts that had come to the temple for the Fire Day sermon.

"And these three things are needed for love as well. Heat, the spark of infatuation, combines with our fuel, our physical and imagined selves, as well as oxygen, the rules of the world and life, to ignite something special in all of our hearts. This is the classical teaching on the nature of True Love according the First Mothers.

"But I am not standing on this pulpit to repeat ideas of the ancient ones," Kaede continued. "As it is Fire Day, the beginning of the season of emotions and love, I think we should talk about another side of love: The Practical side."

"Love is a feeling. You feel it to your spouse, your girlfriend, your boyfriend… towards your friends and your pets, to your children, your parents, your siblings. Some people have large enough fires in their hearts to warm even the lonely hopes of strangers.

"But there is more to love than that. Love is also an action. You can love your girlfriend and you can take them for granted. You can love your child or reap the sad harvest later. You can love the mugger on the street or you can stand there terrified, reaffirming in their eyes that human life isn't worth protecting.

"The Daughters of Fire will take on this point over the coming weeks, so I leave that idea where it is. But I want to finish today's service with a deeper explanation of love as an action. What does that mean? Does it mean doing something lovingly? I can speak to all of you lovingly, with sincere care and attention, but that doesn't mean everyone who hears me will feel that love. Perhaps we have become jaded. Perhaps we feel unworthy. Perhaps we feel that a stranger cannot love us.

"I disagree. I can love a stranger, but it is a specific kind of love. It is not one based in deep understanding of their character, but rather on a deep appreciation of the fact that, like me, they are one harmonic life in this world trying to make it through. Just in that way alone, we are similar. We all have the capacity to love the unknown around us.

"But also there are several ways we can love as an action. We can give gifts. We can spend meaningful time around those we care about. We can tell our loved ones why they are special to us. We can do things for them so they know we want their lives to be gentle. And yes, we can reach out to them physically, be it a hand-shake, a comforting hug, or a lover's embrace…"

Kagome listened on quietly. She liked the message Kaede was making, but she felt there was something incomplete about it and she couldn't figure out what. Moreover, she wondered if there were any demons or half-demons in the large Temple of Fire who might felt left out as only "human life" was worth protecting. At the end she found herself sitting alone the hundreds of finely dressed people stood up and called out in unison.

"All emotion is transitory but valid! One must acknowledge one's emotions, feel them, and then let them pass like smoke into the night! May our Mother's light guide us to a harmonious heart!"

'That was kinda creepy…' She thought warily, watching what might have been a mindless hoard of Polisians sit down as a commandable army. But after a minute of orchestral music Kaede disappeared. People began talking in cacophonous mass and filing out of the pews, brandishing umbrellas and lightweight rain-coats.

"Ah, Kagome," Prime Mother Kaede said as the alien found her way into the side alcove. "Have thee any plans for this lustrous Fire Day?"

"Lustrous? It's still raining," Kagome said.

"Only right now. In less than an hour's time it will pass. Now, your Fire Day? Has any strapping youth asked you to attend the Lover's Limpics yet?"

"Oh, uh… not really," she said. "I don't really know anyone all that well in town anyway - - I'd be more surprised if someone asked me than if someone didn't. But I had a—"

"No one has asked you yet? Hmm…" The old woman stared off into the distance for a moment. Kagome looked over her shoulder and only saw the masses she'd dodged around still heading for the main exit.

"Actually, I had a question about your sermon today," Kagome said, turning her attention back to the Prime Mother. Some of the Daughters and Neices attending her raised their eyebrows but carried on with what they were doing.

"Certainly Kagome, what is on your mind?"

"Well… I, uh… I noticed that you mentioned 'human life' specifically during the service, but what about life in general? Might some demons or half-demons in the congregation be hurt by their exclusion.

The Daughters and Nieces chuckled. "There hasn't been a demon in any of the Temples or the Compound for over 700 years!" One droned.

"No wait, there was one a few decades back," one of the older ones said, staring up at the ceiling as if trying to remember.

"I-I mean, even if they aren't here shouldn't they still be, well… respected?" Kagome asked, feeling like she was in one of her father's interrogations again.

"After how they treat us…?" Was the murmured consensus. Kaede shooed off the other girls, set down the notes she was holding, and moved closer to Kagome.

"Ignore them, child. Aye, that should not have been in that sermon. I shall amend my writings for the next few weeks. Though I wonder… is there a reason ye thought about that specifically?" She asked. Kagome blinked once and shook her head. Kaede nodded slowly. "All right then. Oh, what have ye learned about the origins of Demons?"

Kagome sighed. "Not a whole lot. We've found references to Demons a long way back, all the way to around year 500—"

"Aye, in the middle of the first Merican Confederacy after the Dark Times," Kaede said.

"Yes, but we haven't found much more than that. I've been looking through census records for Zaba since Miroku said that Prialata used to be a Demon City hundreds of years ago… but I can't figure anything out from that. I feel like we're coming to a dead end."

Kaede nodded. "Have ye found texts from the Dark Times?"

"No. I was told that there are no written records about what happened in Beji during or before the Dark Times," Kagome said.

Kaede shook her head. "Prince Inuyasha taught you that, didn't he? I know of at least one set of texts from that time that ye may read."

"What?! Oh my goodness yes! What are they!? Where can I find them!?"

"I will send for them," Kaede replied. "On the south-east coast of Ko there is a city called Tiner Sbark - - it is the first recorded settlement of the republic. It is also the place where the Mothers wrote the First Sacrament of the Mothers in the year 194."

Year 194. The Dark Times was a period lasting until the year 300 where reports of anything were scarce, aside from tales of great calamity, war, starvation, and literal darkness. But somehow a religion was born in the middle of it? And it's first text survived into the present?

"…You'll send for it…?" Kagome asked breathlessly.

"Not for the original, but there are numerous copies," Kaede replied.

A few lingering members of the crowd jumped when the short, light skinned and black haired girl with odd eyes screamed, jumped up and down, and hugged the Prime Mother of all people.

"Calm, be calm child!" Kaede huffed while disentangling herself from the embrace. "Have composure in this place!"

"Oh, sorry I'm just so excited, especially after what Inuyasha said the other day! Really you don't know how much—"

"Hm? What did the prince say…?" Kaede began to ask, but her gaze and words trailed off. Kagome saw that the old woman was staring at someone behind her, so she turned around to find a tall, brown haired young man with a familiar face standing there like a child caught in the act of stealing cookies. He stood there for a few second longer before Kaede cleared her throat. "Nice to see you, Nobunaga, how has your mother been lately?"

"Wha-?" He shook all over for a moment and took a proper gaze at the two. "She-She's fine ma'am, thank you for asking!"

Kaede nodded slowly. "Very good… may I introduce you two? Nobunaga Hojo, this is Kagome Higurashi. Nobunaga's family runs a chain of restaurants here in Polis and are major supporters of the Mothers, and Kagome's is, eh, well—"

"I'm one of the aliens," Kagome offered. No use hiding it. "We're still figuring things out…"

Nobunaga nodded jerkily. He looked at Kaede and back to Kagome, and rouge bloomed on his cheeks. "I-I… hope you all are fitting in here well. Um, I… I would…," He swallowed and tried again, almost blurting out. "I have seen you in the compound before and think you are the most beautiful girl I've ever seen and I want to put forth my bid to you at the Limpics!"

Whether the Temple truly got more quiet or Kagome's ears made fuzz-balls of everything else in the world was hard to discern. He just said… what? Over the course of a few days two young men called her pretty… granted, one was probably added as an after-thought to get her to shut up, but that was still more times in one week than in her whole life.

"I… uh…" Only about 2/5th's of Kagome's brain was responding to her dire need to say something. "Sure, I guess. I don't really know how to do this… but…"

Instantly the boy started beaming. "You will!? That's great, that's really really great!"

"You hardly had to worry, Nobunaga," Kaede chuckled behind them. Kagome caught a few of the Neices and Daughters whispering about how popular he was. '_Just like the old Hojo…wait a second_.'

She looked at his face a little closer, and it was obvious: This kid was the great-great-great-to-infinity-grandson of the boy who stole her first kiss back on Earth.

The glamour of the moment suddenly turned icy. '_This… is creepy_…'

Nobunaga bent down quickly and pecked Kagome on the cheek. "I'll do everything I can to win tomorrow! Oh, uh, I'm competing on the Fire Mekaday, tomorrow… heh, yeah! See you!"

Kagome lightly rubbed at the place where he'd kissed her and watched him run back to a group of whooping friends. She looked over her shoulder to Kaede, and in that knowing look Kagome knew the gas-bag had been in on it.

Mekaday rolled around, and Kagome found herself walking towards the Limpics Stadium, standing in the same part of the Rose Quarter, Witten District as she had over a month before. Willow was introducing Sango to the world of Ice Cream Discs while Kagome was thinking about the name of the day. She'd figured out that the Sun on Beji wasn't known as a sun but as Meka: Sunday to Mekaday made some sense. But why the term Meka? She asked this to Sango after the police trainee was liking her Fire Day Cream.

"Hazel has a cool theory about that," She said. Kagome looked over to Willow to see if she was in on the conversation, but the woman seemed to absolutely off in la-la land.

"What is it?"

"His apartment is right next to a singularist temple," Sango said between licks. "It belongs to people called the Musas, and guess what they call the temple?"

Kagome had no idea where this was going. She shrugged.

"It's called a Mosk, like a Muslim Mosque. They read a book called the Second Kora, written by the New Prophet Karence, and they have to direct their worship to where the Great Prophet first met Ala, AKA God. So they worship towards Meka, AKA Mecca."

"Holy crap…" Kagome muttered. Why hadn't Hazel told her about this? He'd been over to the family's apartment plenty of times since the… event with Sota… maybe that was why he'd been spending more time with her younger brother than her.

"I know. And get this," Sango took another lick of the red and orange stuff. "Wow, spicy ice cream, who'd a thunk… There is a country in Niraq called Ala and there is another right next to it called Viv, and guess what the name of the singularist religion in Viv is?"

"Something to do with Judaism?" Kagome replied.

Sango nodded. "Yup, they are called the Juz and they worship a God called Adonai. Ala and Viv have been fighting each other off and on for as much history as I've read. But not between the Juz and the Musas, those two groups get along fine in lots of other places. Its just between Ala and Viv."

"You two know, yeah, that this is the time of fire?" Willow chimed in with a sparkling smile. "Let that water go, let it! We're here for the Lover's Limpics! Feel the warmth inside you…"

Kagome and Sango stared at the blonde woman and wondered a bit about what was going through her head at that moment.

"Uh…right," Sango said. "But Kagome is the only one who was specifically invited. What do you and I do; go up there and watch guys compete for other women while nurturing the idea we'll be forever alone?"

Willow laughed heartily. "Not me I won't, I'm being inducted as a Daughter of Air at the end of the week!"

This was the first the other two had heard of it: Kagome and Sango cheered and hugged her and offered their congratulations.

"Oh thank ya, thank ya… but still it is fun to tell men I cannot accept their bids…" The Neice-soon-to-be-Daughter crooned. They stopped at the last stoplight before the many steps going up to the stadium.

"So I'll just be feeling like I'll be forever alone… But really Willow, that's cruel to the poor boys!" Sango said, but the other woman flapped her hand like shooing a fly.

"It's fine, happens all the time it does. But you two stick with me and I'll show you how to get a man's bid… or a woman's bid? Do either of you prefer that?"

"Men please," Kagome replied.

"There are times when I'm tempted…" Sango said. After a momentary stare from the other two, she shook her head and said. "Oh, I like men. But boys are more common, and after being around them for so long you wonder if women would be better…"

"They're not," Willow said. The walk light turned blue and the trio crossed the street. This garnered a stare from the other two.

"Are you a lesbian Willow?" Kagome asked. The soon-to-be Daughter raised an eyebrow.

"Heh… no. I like men and women. Both are pretty. But both can be petty. Anyway, my heart calls and answers to the wind, finds spirit and life in the clouds, swirls in the air that's been poked by rain drops. I do the best when I connect to everything." She replied.

The two girls nodded calmly and headed up the stairs. "Kagome probably has a different story to tell than me," Sango began saying a few steps up. "But where I came from… bisexuality, homosexuality and such… it was considered a bad thing. When I was young there were riots where a lot of those kinds of people were killed."

"Oh right…" Kagome said quietly. "The Tallahassee Massacre…"

Willow looked at the two of the aliens as if they truly were from another planet. "Sexuality? What does that have to do with the time of love? Spring is the time of loins, but Summer is the time of love. And its not about who someone has sex with - - anyone have can sex with anything. It's about who you love and how you love them. When I was younger I loved this girl called Anna… she was sweet but so jealous about everything. A few years ago I loved a boy named Aonso, but he was… ooh, he was bad news. I think he has a kid now I think about it, back in Luanda…" She seemed to be lost in memory. "Ah, yeah yeah right right. This ain't where you are from, yeah? This is a new home. It's love time, not loin time."

"Well, yeah… but still it's kind of hard for me to talk about these things, okay?" Sango said, sounding a little hurt. "My… my brother was, and my mom left because of that… so it's not easy…"

"Your mother left?!" Kagome blurted out. "Because your younger brother was gay? I thought she died in… in something."

"Well, she died in a car accident as she was leaving, so the two kinda go hand in hand, but still… it's weird for me."

"Gonna havta get over that you will!" Willow replied cheerfully, hurrying up the last few steps. Sango crossed her arms and followed, Kagome trailing behind. At the front Willow showed Kagome how to put up her bid, asking one of the front clerks if Nobunaga Hojo had arrived to 'wager' yet. The clerk nodded and ticked something off in a book he held behind the counter. He rummaged for a bit and held out a small, green circle with the numbers 94 on it. Kagome groaned - - the numbers for "excruciating pain" and "death".

"There you are miss, Mr. Hojo is competing in the fourth rotation so you can go see him in the Stables if you want. We will have to ask you to stay in the Stables once you enter and not leave to the general viewing arena. May your wager win all you want," the clerk said with practiced monotony. Willow showed Kagome and Sango to the 'Stables', a large, covered pavilion built into the side of the stadium with a clear view of the large pool down below. A thousand or more people were crowded loudly into the general seating, but in this shady, red carpeted room there was plenty of room to mingle. And mingling seemed to be the name of the game: several shirtless and nearly pantsless young men were talking to other young men or women, some with a look of adoration and others dread. Kagome wasn't sure where she stood on that gradient.

"So… now what?" Sango asked Willow.

"Over here," Willow said, beckoning the others over to standing rails similar to the ones Kagome had sat at with Miroku a long time before. Kagome made a secret wish the waitress that had served them had died in some quick, painless way since then.

"Okay, and now…?" Sango asked.

"We wait for the boys to find us. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. You can get drunk in the meantime if you want," Willow said lightly.

And so they waited for a few minutes until a loud gonging jerked Kagome and Sango around to see what just scared them to death's door. Willow pointed down to the pool, and they saw a woman holding up a large sign with the number 3 on it as young men lined up. An announcer came on the microphone, offered an odd introduction and called off the names of the competitors and the people they had given their bids to. Kagome smiled as she heard that about half of them were racing for young men as young women.

There were two whistles - - the men took their places. A third whistle, and the men jumped into the—

"Kagome! You made it!" the alien heard behind her. She whirled around as splashes rang out, and there was Hojo in what was essentially a bright green speedo. He looked wet but brimming with energy, and… she couldn't deny how distracting his abdominal muscles were.

"Yes! Uh, hi!" She said, trying not to trip while standing. It didn't work very well. Nobunaga stood there smiling like a fool for a few moments.

"Hi…" he said again, clearly lost in the moment.

"Hi… we kinda covered that one," Kagome said. He didn't seem to notice. Instead he reached out and pulled her into a deep wet hug.

"Wow, he doesn't kid around," she heard Willow say.

"I'm so glad you came…," Nobunaga crooned. Kagome fought the urge to shiver.

"Agh, can't breathe! Guh!... thank you, and you know we hardly know each other right?" She eventually said once back on solid ground.

"Oh really? It hardly feels like that, with all the things I hear from the Prime Mother," He said. Still smiling. Kagome stared at him for a moment, and inexplicably imagined Inuyasha standing next to him saying, '_Who let the village idiot in?_'. Kagome cracked a smile and instantly regretted it as Nobunaga's smile got even bigger.

"Hey, Erris!" He called over his shoulder. A mound of tanned muscle flesh near the bar jerked his head around. He wore a bright pink speedo with white stripes. This time Kagome couldn't keep from shivering. "Erris! This is the girl I told you about, Kagome Higusashi!"

"HiguRAshi…" Kagome muttered. The man named Erris rolled his head with his eyes, finished whatever he was drinking, and lumbered over.

"The famous Kagome girl, huh?" He slurred deeply. He stopped next to his green clad friend and looked her over like a piece of meat. "Pretty hot."

'_Don't break any braincells,'_ she heard pseudo Inuyasha say. This time she flat out laughed, but cut it off when the Erris guy raised an eyebrow.

"She's-she's really cool, I can't wait to cream you in there and get to know her even better!" Nobunaga said. Erris gave a little huff and nodded, and walked off to intimidate something else.

"Hi there Nobunaga!" Willow said cheerfully, snapping the boy's attention off Kagome for the first time. They greeted like old friends, gossiped about some of the Daughters, introduced Sango, but before Nobunaga could get into deeper detail the gong sounded down below.

As the announcer began the odd, sing-song introduction he'd given to the competitors before, a thought crossed Kagome's mind. "You know, why can't the people here just ask each other out normally? Is all this competition stuff really necessary?"

"Who told you it was about going out?" Willow replied. She shook her head and laughed. "No Kagome, the winner of a Lover's Limpics competition is supposed to spend the night with winner."

"…Spend the night…?" Kagome whispered.

"Yeah yeah, loud sex, all that stuff," Willow replied. Sango and Kagome looked at each other with panicked wide eyes.

"And now, who is competing in this fourth rotation!?" The announcer called out. The swimmers lined walked out of several doors fitting on goggles and adjusting their garments. "In line one, we have Landrew Latview, whose bid goes out to Ryan Aldereie!"

A thin young man with boyish features screamed like a harpy in the booth next to Kagome's party. '_We will have to ask you to stay in the Stables once you enter and not leave to the general viewing arena'_ repeated in her head.

"In line two, Josef Ndagu, whose bid goes out to Cler Wissent!"

_You hardly had to worry, Nobunaga," Kaede chuckled behind them. Kagome caught a few of the Neices and Daughters whispering about how popular he was._

"In line three, Nobunaga Hojo, whose bid goes out to Kagome Higusashi!"

Screams erupted from the stands as Kagome's forehead slammed down on the rail. _"…__And yes, I've been invited to the Limpics several times and have gone on plenty of wonderful excursions afterwards." Miroku said._

"In line four, Radishaw Lorilai, whose bid goes out to Yates Brooks!"

'_Miroku was so quiet after that girl came up to him - - I bet she was one of those excursions that pressed on longer than he wanted… Oh please don't let Nobunaga win!'_

"And in line five, Erris Lucknow, whose bid goes out to Kagome Higusashi!"

Kagome's skin turned to ice. She flipped her head up to peer down at the racers: Nobunaga was staring at Erris with his mouth wide open. The hulking thing was swinging his arms back in forth, ignorant of the world around him.

"Well this just got more interesting…," Willow murmured. Kagome stood there for a moment, terrified: sex. With the winner. Love had nothing to do with it. The swimmers took their positions. The two whistles blew.

"The hell is WITH you people!?" Kagome screamed, and the last whistle blew. She ran for it, pushing servers and speedo-wearers out of the way in her gasp for the main entrance. Cage bars closed the way. She grabbed them and rattled, but they weren't going anywhere. She turned around, looked for more options, giving a rat's ass to her reproaching onlookers. There!—near the bar, an emergency exit. She ran past Willow again, who was yelling something about calming down, and booked it, throwing a plate full of something sizzling into someone's face. Didn't care.

Someone, a bartender, jumped in front of the door. "What's your name?"

"Kagome Higurashi, let me through!" She tried to shove him. She was the once who bounced back.

"Don't change your name like that, we all know who you are," Was his response. Someone grabbed her elbow - - Kagome whirled and slugged Sango, it turned out, in the face.

"Oh god, what was that for!?" Her friend wailed, clutching her jaw.

"Sorry, sorry!" Kagome replied. The hordes were surrounding her. Her dream - - the strangely clad zombies. It was like her vision split for a second and she couldn't tell whether she was back in dream world or living the nightmare.

"It's okay, over there! You can jump down into the bleachers!" Sango called, joining the runaway train and shoving people out of the way until they arrived at the railing. They looked down - - a two story drop to the closest general seating area.

"Other ideas?" Kagome begged. After a second Sango, snapped her fingers and pointed up.

"Get on the roof of this thing! Climb on the rails, I'll give you a push and you can run from there!"

The bartender was after them - - Sango side-kicked him into a table. Willow was yelling now – an odd tone coming from her. Kagome threw a leg over the rails, wishing she hadn't worn a skirt that day, climbed a bit, and put her hands up on the ceiling. "I'm ready! Oh, it's not that far, we can do this!"

Sango grabbed her foot and pushed up. Kagome grasped at the roofing but suddenly her support vanished - - she slipped, screamed, and fell.

One of her feet caught on the rail. She flipped back, the rear side of her skull slamming into the two story tall wall and her skirt falling down and covering her face. The crackling in her skull spread - - the world went wobbly, lines melded, and suddenly sleeping sounded very good. Was she falling? There was a loud gong. Some called out a name, a winner. Erris… Erris Lucknow.

* * *

Kagome ignored the newspaper on the wet pavement. All of Polis had seen her underwear a week ago and were just starting to move on to more interesting topics. The concussion she received had kept her from getting the worst of the gossipy reporters, but still… walking on her own towards the Great Library, even in shades and a hat, felt risky.

She gathered her key while ignoring the whispers of the front desk staff and hurried over to the East Wing. No one seemed to be following her… but crap, one of the people at the front desk was speaking fervently into a phone. Tabloid folk probably knew by now that Kagome frequented this place… continuing to research the origins of demons was not going to be that easy anymore.

She pulled off her glasses and hat as she approached Frogger and Simba. "Oh ho, so the alien slut shows her face," The greener one said.

"Please guys, just let me through," She replied. They stood aside, but she felt their stares again. "And for your information, I haven't even seen the guy since I went to the hospital!"

"Sure you haven't…" Simba nagged. She bit her teeth against their laughter for the rest of the march up stairs.

Inuyasha only gave her a momentary glance as she entered. "So you made it finally?"

"Clearly," was her response. She tossed the hat and glasses in the corner next to the remains of the broken chair, pulled up a seat to the table and started sorting through papers. After a moment she noticed she was being stared at: she looked up to see Inuyasha's hands on the table, eyes closed.

"…Just go ahead and ask me," Kagome sighed. He did nothing. After a few moments he snorted, opened his eyes and crossed his arms.

"You couldn't do it could you?" He said.

Kagome blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"You didn't sleep with that guy," He replied matter-of-factly. Her eyebrows jumped.

"…How do you know? Maybe I'm secretly like Miroku… speaking of the devil's number one sinner, where is Miroku?"

"He's in Tiner Sbark getting something for the gas-bag," Inuyasha said. "And you still smell like you. If you'd bred with someone you'd smell different."

"Oh… well, yeah I guess. I got the concussion so the people at the stadium said I could wait until I healed… But, my god, do I have to? I barely know the guy? What about love and… and… wait a minute, do all demons have your kind of sense of smell?"

"Usually, yeah…"

She slammed her fists on the table. "Dammit, those two pricks down there were jerking my chain!... Ugh… Whatever, I guess it doesn't matter. How are you doing today?"

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. "Uh… cool. Fine I guess."

Kagome nodded. They started shuffling through books. "…Do I really _have_ to… to, you know… with that Erris guy?"

"Heh, according to Polisian social rules you do," He retorted. Kagome's shoulders slunk. "But… hey, you could tell them to go fuck themselves. You don't have to follow the rules all the time."

Kagome didn't respond, but her head lifted up slowly. A smile crept onto her face. "I can?"

"Yeah. I do it all the time."

"You're a prince and a half-demon: you can get away with breaking the rules."

Inuyasha shrugged. "Sango gets away with it."

"She's a lieutenant and knows how to kill people. Same thing."

"Do you want me to cheer you up or not?"

"I do, and you did. I'm just argumentative," Kagome replied. The room was quiet for a moment, the two staring at each other. Finally Inuyasha shrugged, keh'd, and sat back down, pulling out a large, thin book that cracked when the pages turned.

"So… I have a random question," Kagome put forth.

"I'm not telling you how big my dick is," He replied. The burning blush on her face informed him that that was not the question she was thinking about. "What is it?"

"I, uh… well… I'm wondering… what are the differences between humans and demons?" She said. Inuyasha frowned. As usual. "I've just been thinking lately that if I'm studying the origins of Demons it might help if I also know what separates them from humans."

"We're way stronger than you guys, have heightened senses, can transform into—"

Kagome waved her hand while willing the blush down. "Yes, thank you captain obvious, but anything else?"

"Hey, you asked, I'm tellin'. Most demons have the advanced senses and secondary forms of other creatures you find in the world, but not all of them. Like… there are no demon Smoke Shrimp, but there are dogs and wolves and toads and foxes… hm… demons don't ovulate the same, and they have really strange immune systems…"

"They don't ovulate the same?" Kagome asked. Inuyasha was quiet for a second, looking through his creaky old pages.

"Yeah. Demons consciously control their menstrual cycle while humans can't."

"Lucky bitches…" Kagome muttered.

"Heh, well, Half-demons or Hanyou have it a bit different. Female hanyou follow a moon cycle, it never fails, so they have to be more careful."

"That's weird."

"Nah, not really. Once a month a half-demon's powers wane. They're there the whole day except for one period at night. Some hanyou become human on the full moon, others loose it when the moons eclipse each other, some loose it on the waning crescent…"

"…That makes no sense scientifically," Kagome replied.

"Well Miss Religious, since when was scientific sense the only thing in Beji?" Inuyasha shot back. "And here, look at this."

Kagome got up and walked around to the other side of the table. "I found this in the Ambassadorial Archives at the Iguto Embassy. You said that Demon Tongue is really Japaniss—"

"Japanese," Kagome jut in. She received a glare.

"But these scratchy things on these pages, they're not part of Demon Tongue. Do you know what they're saying?"

Kagome looked at the page and instantly saw the Kanji, the blocky form of writing brought over to Japan from China thousands of years ago. Plus 2500 years.

"Yeah - - what is this?"

"It's the oldest book I've got on the Clarence Ritual. Demons and Humans do it all over Beji, so I though something this old could help somehow."

Kagome knew she could read the Kanji - - that would be easy. Putting a finger on the page she flipped to the front cover. There was Kanji there too: The Teachings of Clarence.

"Hunh, that's kinda weird…" She muttered. She flipped back to the page Inuyasha had pointed out. A faded ink figure was shown pouring water into a boxy device with people around him. One hand was pointing up at a symbol for Meka.

"It says… *_Do not touch those who reject the teachings. Be they man or born from the devils,*_ I think that means demons, *_they injure us all by dirtying their veins in the ocean. Stay upon the land, tread wary in the presence of those touched by the Silver Emperor, and fall not into hell lest you become the.. kw… the kwis._ * Whoa, what!?"

Kagome read it again. She flipped back a page. "Oh my… Inuyasha, I think you've really found something here…,"

"What? What is it?"

Kagome looked up to him beaming. "The Clarence ritual! I always thought Clarence was a reference to cleaning the water, but no, it's a person! Someone named Clarence taught people how to clean their water to keep them from getting sick and turning into Kwis… I think! You just found a possible origin story to the Kwis!... Not that I really know who they are, but still—"

"We're looking for the origins of Demons though…" He muttered.

"Hold on, I'm getting to that part…" She flipped back a few more pages, then forward a couple and started reading.

"…_*And Clarence the second prophet said, "My children, while you must protect yourselves from the evil waters, do not force your ways upon those touched by the Silver Emperor, for their bodies are like God's and cannot be infected. For this they *_ Oh my goodness, oh my goodness! *_For this they can remove the Kwis from Post Ria Plata, the sacred island taken in the Dark Times. Though the devil's children, born by our Emperor, arose from the ashes, they be not evil in face of the rejectors* _!" She screamed and grabbed Inuyasha. "Do you know what you've found!?"

"Uh… no?"

"We have an origin story for the Kwis! We know that whoever the Silver Emperor was he was directly involved with the emergence of Demons which happened sometime during the Dark Times! We have an origin for the Demons! And on top of that the Clarence ritual is named after a guy named Clarence, and he's - - -oh my God the Musas! HE'S the second Prophet of the Musas!" She yelled again and grabbed the flabbergasted half-demon into a tight hug. "This is amazing!"

"Uh, w-well, you're the only one who can read it," Inuyasha worked out amidst the yelling.

"Mom and Ji-Chan can read it too! Oh my goodness, I have to keep reading this!..."

By the end of the work-day Kagome and Inuyasha had learned a few more euphemisms for Demons, including _Children born from the Silver Emperor._ Kagome guessed the book was from around the year 850 and was probably the children's version of a larger religious tome.

"But better yet, the style of book tells us a lot about what the world was like then too!" Kagome gushed on. Her hat and sunglasses were back on and she held a Kwis Kiss disc of ice cream in her hand as Inuyasha paid for his. The sun was barely hovering above the western mountains and red-trimmed white clouds billowed high above. "It's nothing like the books on Earth! Sango and I have been wondering why the technology here is at the level it is considering how more advanced we were. I mean, we built a space ship that could cross part of the galaxy but now you guys are lucky to have a boxy TV. Something BIG must have happened early on… oh, do you think it was the Dark Times? Maybe Demons evolved out of a strenuous new environment—"

"If you keep acting like a geek I'm going back to the embassy," Inuyasha cut in. He brushed past her with a Vanilla disc, crossing the street and found his way to the cobbled walking path that ran the length of the central lake. A few blocks away the Great Library could still be seen, as well as the small mob of reporters waiting outside, hoping to get a crack at the voyeur alien they presumed didn't know how to sneak out of a window.

Kagome followed after him. "Don't get your boxers in a twist,"

"I don't wear boxers. I wind up crushing my testicles too much," He replied nonchalantly. Kagome tripped on the curb and fell on the cobblestones, watching her disc soar like a Frisbee and land on a green Pigeon.

"*By the way of the Emperor*, what is wrong with you?" Inuyasha hissed, but he stalked over and helped her up. "You get like this whenever someone mentions sex or anything like that."

"Wha—no I don't!" Kagome replied. "I-I once had a lengthy discussion with Miroku on what the proper place of sex is in one's life."

"Yeah, he told me about that," Inuyasha replied. "But that was a talk about ethics n' crap. You weren't actually talking about sex."

Kagome's face flushed again. "…Aren't they the same?"

"No! One's talking about ethics and the other is talking about two, sweaty, naked bodies pressing up against each other and—"

"STOP!" Kagome shook her head furiously. "Really, this is… I don't feel like…"

"Look Kagome, whether its with that Erris guy or someone else, you're going to have sex at some point. Do you really want to be afraid of that moment?"

"I know sex is normal and stuff… but… but…," There was a part of her mind that was getting angry with this conversation. '_No… no wait, I'm not angry… I'm upset but I'm not angry…'_

Inuyasha scanned the walk for a moment before finding a place to sit on the stone wall placed up above the shore. He bit at the ice cream disc, swallowed the rest, and wiped at the white dribble rolling down his chin. Kagome blushed again and turned around.

"Yeah, see! You ARE thinking about sex in that way!" Inuyasha called on her. Some passersby stared but moved along after a moment. Kagome hurried over to him.

"I… well… I'm not a whore all right?!"

"Yeah, I know that already," Inuyasha said, pointing to his nose. "But you're not a prude either. You want to be, you want to be in control of yourself all the time but no one can. The Fire Parable says—"

"Yes, yes! I KNOW about the parable…" Kagome replied sighing. She looked down at the paper cone and stick in her fingers.

Inuyasha was quiet for a moment. "You can't hold a dick like that, you need more-"

"GAH, STOP THAT! STOP MAKING EVERYTHING SEXUAL!" Kagome yelled. She chucked the stick at him, which he caught and snapped in two almost too fast for her to see.

"You once told me that people can see the world lots of different ways," Inuyasha said. "Or something like that. And you're right. Each person can also see it a lot of different ways too. I can see sexual innuendo, and guess what, _its funny._ Some people just don't like sexual innuendo, but you catch on so fast that I know Miroku's right, you've got a sexual mind!"

Kagome had no shame in blushing this time. She crossed her arms and pressed her legs together, deciding to take off her sunglasses to give him the full power of her glare.

"You don't scare me, little human girl," He snarked. Then he gave a wry smile. "And if you hated all this talk so much then you would have left by now."

"…You know when I said I don't think badly of you? I'm seriously considering amending that statement."

"Just sit down," Inuyasha grumbled. Kagome bit her lip, but she walked forward and swiped some of the latest rain off the top of the wall before sitting.

"Say it," He said.

She blinked. "Say…what?"

"Penis," He replied. "Or cock, dick, shaft, love-stick—"

"STOP STOP STOP!" Kagome waved her hands in front of him as fire bloomed on her face. How had her skin not melted off by now?

"It's just a word. It's just a part of the male body. Don't let it own you like this, now say penis!"

"…It doesn't own me!" Kagome replied in sheepish defense.

"Rrgg, what, do you need a visual example to—"

"NOOOOOO!" Kagome yelled. "I don't know what the social norms about nudity are in Iguto but where I come from… well… actually I guess the Tokyo bath houses were kind of loose about nudity, but I never went there!"

"Why does that matter?" He replied, staring her down. "You are here now. Learn to do things another way! Don't be so afraid of something intimate like this!"

Her father smacking her. Grabbing her, throwing her away from the dinner table. The years of standing outside of her parent's bedroom at night because she had a bad dream but she knew better than to ask to sleep with them. Kagome stared at Inuyasha for a moment… and in that moment she meditated, the first time in a while. She listened to heart and her mind, quieted her thoughts, and the soft, terrified reply was…

'_Men are scary. I can't be touched; they'll just hurt me. Hug and touch only when you need to keep the social peace. Don't let anyone too close. Intimacy is a lie, a trick, it'll kill you.'_

She stared down at the ground, heart hammering painfully. Dammit he was right… and she didn't want to be scared of anymore… Her eyes flitted to his for a moment; amber, intense and determined. She looked back down and closed hers. The images rushed into her head again: crying in bed, left standing there after her father refused to hug, watching her mother run out of the bedroom one night crying. Her father. Naked. No heart in his eyes.

'…_You don't own me anymore dad…Takoku…'_

"…pe…penis…," She whispered.

Inuyasha shook his head. "Louder."

She took a deep breath. '_You don't OWN me anymore Takoku!'_ "…penis…,"

He groaned. "Penis," He said at a normal tone.

"Penis!" She called back shakily.

"C'mon, louder!"

"Penis!"

"LOUD-ER!"

"**PENIS!**" She screamed, sending a flock of birds into the air and knocking a biker's attention so off that the woman rode right into the lake. Kagome's hands flew up to cover her mouth a second before Inuyasha's. She stared at the woman, who was picking herself out of the water, and then the flabbergasted pedestrians as Inuyasha started shaking with laughter. His hand felt rough but warm.

* * *

"Hey Inuyasha… I've got another question for you…" Kagome asked as she and Inuyasha stepped down onto a small park on one of the lake banks. Bright green fig trees stood over them and shaded the gray cobblestone from the bright street lights. They were almost all the way back to her apartment.

"Is _this_ one about how big my penis is?" He asked with a roll of the eyes, wandering over towards a bench near the water's edge.

She frowned. "No; you and Miroku, gracious… I was wondering about, well, the other day when we, uh, ran into inanimate objects while going to see Sango. I felt something on your back that day…"

He visibly tensed. "That's nothing."

"…No, I don't think it is…" Kagome replied softly.

"Why do you have to be so nosy?... Oh right, because you think everyone's worth saving or whatever…" He said admonishingly.

"Not saving, just worth respecting and listening to, like you and the… penis stuff." She said.

"Well if you're gonna respect me maybe you should go back to using my title."

She frowned. "You're trying to change the topic by getting me upset, Inuyasha, I'm not falling for it. What did I feel on your back?"

His face flushed for a moment, but his gaze suddenly ran from hers and he crossed his arms. "It's just a scar from something that happened when I was a kid, all right?"

She frowned. "…That's not a normal scar. I don't know a lot about demons and half-demons, but I do know those crazy immune systems you guys have heal all wounds perfectly. But not this one."

He visibly winced. His arms loosened, but they stayed crossed. "My brother gave it to me… to teach _me_ _respect_…"

The lake water lapped and cars passed on the road above them. "What did he do to you…?"

"It doesn't matter…," Inuyasha said, staring at the ground. He wasn't really listening to anything around him either, so when he turned to look at the girl he was talking to he started to see her lifting up her shirt. "What the-!"

"That's where mom decided she was going to divorce dad," She said, looking down at the black, triangular scar on her ribs. "I said something stupid to him and I didn't care that he had had a bad day. He threw the iron at me and this is where it hit. I don't know if he knew it was on or not, but either way it didn't stop him from picking the iron up again and breaking two of my ribs…

"After it happened some of my friends came to cheer me up, and they said they understood what I was going through because of… I don't really remember what. But I knew that they didn't understand what I felt then, or what I feel now. No one can ever really understand what it's like to earn scars like this," She said. She looked up to Inuyasha: this was the first time his face looked soft, like a shocked boy. His arms were no longer crossed. She pushed her shirt down and looked down at the waves.

"But… I've been talking to this Daughter of Water for a while now, up at the compound… And she's been teaching me that even though no one can really understand what it feels like to have these scars… that doesn't mean I can't help them understand. Kinda like how you helped me a few hours ago with…penises. And… the process of talking to people helps me understand what I'm going through. It's like these waves… each one is very specific, but they're all waves, and we can all understand at least the basics of each one…"

She looked up and saw Inuyasha was still staring, though he had closed his mouth. "Wow…," She said.

"…What?" He whispered.

"You're handsome when you're not angry at the world," she said.

His shocked softness faded slightly as his lips returned to their usual, determined scowl, but his eyes weren't hard. He looked down at the water and then to the bricks beneath his feet. Very swiftly he checked if anyone was above them on the boulevard, and with shaking fingers he undid the belt of yellow fabric around his waist. He shook his shoulders a bit and the red haori thing slipped down, revealing a brown, green, and violet scar on his spine reminiscent to a warty pumpkin. Kagome gasped quietly.

"Pretty gross huh?" Inuyasha said bitterly. But a moment later he shivered as he felt fingertips gently pressing onto the tender area.

"What happened to you…?" She whispered. "And no… it is what it is. There's beauty in everything."

"Keh, don't strain yourself," He replied, fumbling with his clothes to bring the top back on. "My brother… I think I was just being an annoying brat again, but he… uh, he punched a hole in me."

"HE WHAT?!" Kagome yelled.

"Yeah… its relatively common where I come from…," He said carefully, tying his belt back on. He flipped his hair down and looked at the alien girl, who stared right back with wetness in her eyes. "…What? Don't you dare pity me. I don't need anyone's—"

"I'm not pitying you Inuyasha…" Kagome replied. "I'm just… I'm so sorry you had to go through that."

"I just said don't pity me!" He bit back. He instantly regretted it as she jumped to her feet angrily, a tear jumping down her cheek and a finger pointing at his face.

"Stop that! It's not the end of the world if someone else cares about you enough to tell you that they are sad to know that you've felt pain! It doesn't mean you're weak or lower than me or something stupid, it just means I think you need a fucking hug!"

That was twice in one day Kagome Higurashi sent birds flying.

He sighed. "What's the name of the guy who won the Limpics? Erris?"

Kagome stood there angrily for a few moments, feeling like her thunder just blew apart like a balloon let loose with an open end. "Yes!"

He nodded. "I read the interviews with him… don't go out with him. He's a dick."

"I… I hardly see what this has to do with the conversation!"

"I know you said you didn't want to do stuff with him, but really, don't. For your first time you deserve someone better."

She stood there quietly, her finger still pointing at the white haired, dog-eared, complex young man in front of her. After a few moments rain started tinkling down around them. She lowered her arm as he stood up.

"Let's get you home," he said.

* * *

Two days passed and there was a car running and waiting outside the family apartment. No way Kagome was going to be able to evade the Erris guy now: she had to go on the date. '_But I don't have to play by the rules_…' She thought to herself with steel, remembering her pep-talk from the half-demon.

"Hazel…" She called. "Take care of Sota till my mom gets home from work. I'll be back in a few hours."

Down the steps and into the car, she found herself face to face with the tanned, heap of muscle known as Erris, clad in a red and white striped suit. He used his whole head to look her over. "Hot."

"Don't hurt yourself," jumped out of her lips before she could stop. Kagome slid into the car, thankful that Inuyasha could at least be with her in spirit to fight off this mess. Or at least in word.

"Hurt myself doing what?" Erris asked.

'_Oh god.'_

The door slammed behind her and they began driving, just in enough time for her to realize there were no seat-belts in this particular vehicle.

Erris sat on the other end of the car, fingers scratching his unshaven chin. "So… you're name's Kagome, right?"

"Kagome Higurashi, not sashi," She replied. And waited. Nothing happened. She sighed - - the one loop hole she thought of to get her out of this situation failed to even register on the guy's radar. Or the driver's for that matter. "So, uh… nice car?"

"Thanks, my family has a lot of 'em," He replied deeply. Aaand… more silence.

"Um… where are we going?"

"Oh yeah, we're going to this club on the Shore, hot to the max," He said with a grin.

"And after that…," He said, sliding closer to her like an evil octopus. "I wanna take you and fuck your brains out."

Her eyes shot wide open and her mouth locked closed. '_That was fast—okay, don't play by the rules, don't play by the rules, fight back!_'

"Uh, h-hey, listen," Kagome sputtered. "I'm, I'm, well, I'm one of the aliens, you know?"

"Oh yeah, I know, it's hot," He rumbled. God his breath was terrible.

"Thanks, eh, I think, but listen. Hey! Listen!" She snapped her fingers in front of his eyes. "I didn't know what I was getting into, all right? Nobunaga just asked me to go and I said yes because I thought it was just a date thing, not a—a—a random screw a person you just met thing!"

"Aeh, that's what I thought. You'd never go for a skinny bitch like Nobu," He said, getting closer.

"No, NO!" She pushed at his chest with her heeled foot. "Hold on here dude, I'm saying I'm not having sex with anyone tonight!"

"You want it though," He grabbed her leg and lifted it up. Dammit why did she keep wearing skirts!? "See, you—"

"Get off!" She screamed, trying to kick him in the face with her other leg. It knocked him in the temple - - his head lolled over for a second but he looked back at her in a moment. Heartless. Soulless. Her father's face flashed over his for a moment.

"You cunt!" He seethed. She didn't see it, she just felt the thunk against her head and felt the pain on her cheekbone. "Spence! Keep drivin', fuck the club we're doing this now! You want it rough, huh? Want me to fuck you nice and hard bitch?"

Doing what? She wasn't sure - - '_Two concussions in two weeks?'_ was the best her brain could manage for a few seconds until she felt her legs getting lifted up. One word screamed across her mind.

Rape.

This was happening. This was happening. She forced her eyes open and found the man in front of her. He wasn't looking at her - - he was licking two fingers and staring between her legs. '_Quick, think anatomy! Men – usual weak points are eyes, nose if you hit it straight on, throat, xiphoid process in the sternum, the groin, knee caps and the metatarsal bones! Can't reach any of—'_

He grabbed one high heel and threw it behind him. He grabbed the other, hurriedly ripped it off and tossed it to the side where it bounced off the walled back of the car and down to the floor. With that she could reach something on him. When she let go of her pounding head - - when did she press her hand up against it? - - a bolt of pain streaked up and down her face, but she had to. Kagome reached for the heel as she felt his sticky fingers brush up against her inner thigh.

'_Why am I not screaming?' _Her brain raged. '_Why not!? Why not—No, focus! Heel! Now!'_

She grabbed the heel and did her best to close her legs, but with someone as big as Erris that couldn't be done. He was saying something, but she tuned it out.

'_GOT IT!_' Her mind screamed victoriously. She fumbled for a moment getting the heel into a pike position and looked down at him. One of his arms was down between her legs - - she felt fingers grabbing at her underwear. There was a honk, a screech, and a rapid turn, throwing them off balance and making them roll to the ground. One of his hands didn't let go of one of her legs.

"Get up bitch… Up!" He snarled, picking her up by the front of her dress and throwing her down on the seat. He pushed one of her legs up and pressed his hips in towards her.

The heel hit his temple and raked down to his eyelid. Erris screamed and jumped back, making her miss him with her second swipe. Kagome sat for a second – she knew she shouldn't, but her brain kept jumping between fighting and running for it. A second more and she grabbed her panties, shimmied them up, and stabbed at him again when he lunged: the heel hit his nose and slid up into his eye.

This scream was different. Kagome dropped the shoe, and it slowly slipped out of his eye socket. Erris crumpled into the bottom of the car, blood turning the white stripes of his suit red. An earthquake suddenly hit, but as Kagome turned and fiddled with the door she realized there was no earthquake, she was shaking. They were on a large arterial road, going fast: it was abandoned in the late night rain.

Erris screamed something to the driver. Kagome's stomach jumped into her throat and forced the auto-lock back, opened the door, and jumped out. Her bare feet caught the asphault, tore, and then she was tumbling and skidding on the road. After a few seconds she stopped, aching on her shoulders and her head and her feet and her hands, and getting drenched.

A second later she heard the car screech to a halt. "Shit," She jumped to her feet - - nothing broken except very pissed off skin - - and ran, not sure where she was running except that she was getting away from that car and running faster then she ever had in her whole life. She wiped her wet hair out of her face as it ran down, but soon she was wiping at the water as it clouded and stung her eyes.

Run. Run. Run. Breathe for a second. Where was everyone? She looked at her watch. Almost midnight - - everyone was asleep. Except for the car that splashed her with water. Car. Run. Run.

She didn't know how much time had passed. But she recognized that street. How? She slowed, her legs feeling like they couldn't take running any more.

She looked down the street, and saw all the way down the boulevard to the Swim Stadium. Lighting cracked and a swirl of pale violet and yellow swirled in the mountains beyond it. '_A swim stadium… for the time of fire…'_ Kagome managed in the pounding rain. She turned and kept walking. And walking. She checked her watch again after a while. Well past midnight. She was getting cold. Keep moving.

She checked the road behind her a few times- - no cars. Would the driver take Erris back to her? To finish the job? … To get the girl who might talk to the police?

"Police. Sango…" Kagome thought aloud. Where was Sango's apartment? Where was Kagome now? If she passed the Swim Stadium's area, then she was in the Rose Quarter. Still a long way from home, but Sango's apartment was in this quarter. It was close to Embassy Row too, where all of the Ambassadors to Ko resided. She ran over to a bus station and peered at the map - - all of the buses were done for the day of course, but the route map showed… about a mile and a half north was the stop for Embassy Row. In the far distance she heard a car horn, prompting her to start jogging. One block. Three. Seven. Ten. Almost there. Eleven. She could see the lights from the embassies in front of her. Twelve. She wiped at the rain and hair in her face, starting to feel the chill of the water seeping in. She didn't recognize any of the buildings as Sango's. She'd only been there once. Was it on this side or the other?

She stood on Embassy Row. The buildings weren't tall but they were ornate, illuminated in gold, red, green or blue lights. She walked down the abandoned street smoothly, lightning reaching a crescendo in the distance. She glanced towards the Northern side of the city and saw a building struck - - an advertisement board lit up for several seconds before fading again.

She turned to the right and found herself in front of the cream colored Igutoni Embassy. The lights inside were off, the gates closed and locked. She walked closer to them anyway and held onto the bars. She looked down and examined at her injuries for the first time - - it was hard to tell in the rain, but the bottom of her left foot was covered in black bits of road and sidewalk, glued in with blood and tinges of silver where the rain crystalized with her hemoglobin.

There was a loud clang and suddenly the gate swung open. Kagome let go of it and stared, watching the black metal coast to a stop. More rain. More thunder. A light in the front of the building flicked on. Kagome took a step and buckled from the clawing pain in her foot. '_No more adrenaline…'_ She thought, pushing herself up and walking on the ball of her foot down the front drive.

She looked up again and saw an orangeish figure behind the glass door. She wiped at the wet hair in her eyes again. "Lion…?" She wondered aloud.

Some ran out to her, white hair. "Kagome, what are you-?! The fuck…,"

"I broke the rules," She said, surprised at how calm her voice was. "I broke 'em Inuyasha, I didn't let… I didn't…"

"Fuck—" She was up in the air and flying out of the rain. The front room was stately, yellow carpet covering white marble and dark stained wood desks in places passing in and out of her vision. "*Naga, call an ambulance! Wake up Enoi after that, get him to call the Higurashi residence!* Shit, stop shivering—Your eye-! Kagome…?

Faces ran through her mind. Erris and the bloody shoe. Takoku. Sota screaming. Her mother crying. Inuyasha admonishing her on the top of a hospital, Inuyasha on a bridge… Inuyasha holding her face in his hands? _I don't remember that one…_

"C'mon, talk to me, what happened?" She heard again.

"*What's going on?*" She heard - - a different voice. It belonged to Frogger.

"*Enoi, lock down the Embassy! Alert the rear guard and call Miroku Denem Yamada – his number is in the personal record!* Kagome stay with me, stay awake – Fuck, your head's been bleeding—"

"You were right," She mumbled. She felt the warm hands stop moving.

"Right about what?"

"He is a dick, a total penis…," She said. After a moment warmth started flowing into her from her back.

"*Here's some towels – the ambulance is on its way. They said keep her from moving and keep her warm.*" Simba was talking this time. Inuyasha called him Naga.

"*Go get the rear guards with Enoi!*" Inuyasha ordered.

"He was going to kill me…," Kagome muttered. Sleep was collapsing around her. "So I fought back. I broke the rules…"

"C'mon, stay awake Kagome. You're safe here, but you have to stay awake, got it? No falling asleep - - let's get a towel around your legs… your foot…!"

In the alley across the street from the Igutoni Embassy someone shook off the crystalizing silver accumulating on top of her umbrella. She shook her head with a puff, opened her fan and flicked it. Kagura soared into the sky, landing on a nearby roof before flicking her fan again and soaring once more.

* * *

_Authors Notes:_

_I know, huge chapter, but I had to get to that last point. Plus, sick. Had time to kill._

_Also, you guys may have noticed that I don't shy away from some very scary topics, such as the after effects of abuse and rape. I don't do this to scare people or to make the story more 'gritty' or 'real': As someone who has survived both, I wish people wouldn't take these topics in vain. But that said, these things are extremely important to talk about. Rape doesn't tend to happen with random strangers; its people who we're are acquainted with, friends, and even family. Abuse comes in numerous forms, and it is not always overt or physical. One of the reasons I bring these topics into this story is because people need to know that it is not the end of the world if something like this happens. There is beauty in everything. And, to be quite frank, one of the most beautiful things in my life was just being held by a friend and reminding me that I was going to be okay in face of what that man did. Guess what - - I am okay. And Kagome will be too. She's going to get exactly the help she needs, so don't worry. ^_^_

_Fyi, I have maps of Ko and Beji, and if people want to see them I'll be glad to share. Just send me a private message and you can see what I do with my free time._

_Kagura… mwehehe._

_Chapter Preview:_

_Kagome is going to get the help she needs to deal with the Erris event. Miroku will return with even more information about the origins of Demons, which turn out to be tied even closer to the rise and fall of the Kwis. We also watch Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku and Sango come together as a real group, augmented by the appearance of a new, pint-sized demon into their lives. It also won't hurt that Inuyasha and Kagome will start recognizing what they mean to each other._

_And oh, you think my last quip about Kagura was bad?..._


	12. Chapter 10

_Getting this out on a Sunday… meant to get it out sooner, but so… much… work… bweeeehhh… (dies)_

Chapter 10

Life is messed up. This was Kagome's conclusion. It was beautiful and radiant, and sometimes its elegance was so powerful she could touch it, in the clouds, in the water, in the compassionate eyes of strangers. But there was great tragedy right along side the beauty; Her father disfigured the emotional abilities of Kagome's mother, her brother, and herself, and if that wasn't enough those same terrors revisited her in her sleep. Her ancestors were so ignorant of their influence upon a planet that they baked it to death. And here, in a city where people asked her to come and make a home because they genuinely cared for her wellbeing, there were still the diseased souls who somehow legitimized rape within their minds.

She looked down at the clean wrap on her tender foot, still somewhat numb from the local anesthetic. Doctors had pulled out the asphalt and vine of silver that stuck in her epidermis from the night of running. She'd have one hell of a scar from this. Knowing that was kind of relieving, actually: there was no way she'd be able to hide that much of her skin, especially in summer, so why even bother? She wouldn't have to worry about being physically perfect anymore. Granted, she didn't really think about it all that much before hand, but still.

"Or maybe I'm just messed up…?" She wondered aloud, but then she smiled. The tone in her voice, the feeling… they were familiar. A little snarky but genuine and soulful. After about two months of craziness she was finally starting to settle down into herself. Maybe it was the crisis this Erris person presented? Crisis was pretty easy to handle with enough practice.

She looked up to the other people in the small examining room of the hospital. Her mother and Willow were there right then… but…

'_I feel back to normal but no one will friggin' look at me!'_ She sighed on the inside. They moved slowly, watched her out of the corner of her eyes, always careful _not_ to mention the guy or what happened… as if it would make her crack like a vase and start a tearful Armageddon. '_I was sexually assaulted, its not the end of the world or of life… Thanks to Dad I had to learn how to deal with this kind of thing early. And the Daughter of Water from the compound has been really helpful too… dealing with the images of Erris is just like dealing with the images of Dad. I remind myself where I am right then, that what happened is in the past, and that even though there are some things that won't ever be the same you can still live life._'

Ji-Chan was wheeled into the room from his bathroom break by Sota. The older of the two wouldn't even look at Kagome now, but Sota… their mother had decided not to tell him all the details of what happened, and now all he did was stare at Ms. Higurashi and Kagome in bewilderment. Kagome slumped over and leaned her head in her hand, elbow on her chair's arm-rest: '_What a stupid idea mom…'_

"And here are your release forms, Ms. Higrashi," a male nurse said, bringing a clip-board over to Kagome's seat. "Let's, uh, try to keep you out of the hospital for a few weeks, ok? Otherwise we'll have to start a tab."

She smiled and thanked him, signed her name and filled out her asylum number, grabbed her crutches and headed for the door.

"*Oh dear, please, let me get a wheelchair for you,*" Kagome's mother said, Willow already flying out of the room to fetch one nearby.

"I'm okay, Mom, I can do this," Kagome said, steadying herself.

"*But dear, all of those reporters out there- - I'd really be more comfortable if you were in a wheel-chair,*"

"English mom, you gotta practice. And you may feel more comfortable if I was in a wheel-chair, but I wouldn't," She paused and flicked her gaze to her grandfather and to Sota. "What happened wasn't the end of the world, and my life isn't over. I can manage my crutches while I get over this… but can you catch me if I loose my balance and fall over?"

Miwa Higurashi didn't miss her daughter's gaze, but she didn't say anything. She nodded once and smiled. "I can help you when you need it," She said fluently.

"Oh mama, that was perfect!" Kagome yelled, reaching out and hugging her mother, promptly loosing her crutches and bringing them both down. Willow arrived a moment later with the wheelchair, wondering why the two Higurashi women were on the floor laughing.

* * *

Research at the Great Library had been officially "postponed," according to the black and white image of Miroku presented on the Higurashi family's new television. Miwa Higurashi's first paycheck arrived the same day that Kagome showed up at the Igutoni Embassy. The boxy thing looked strange stacked on a box in front of the unused fireplace, but it worked, so Kagome said nothing about it. She was more concerned that all of Polis was raging about _her_. Kagome, the alien-girl who _hilariously_ partook in the Lover's Limpics, had become the talk of the town, and to her chagrin the talk included blame. "Of course," Kagome muttered, glaring at the T.V. "Because _you guys_ have a ridiculous, sex-obsessed _competition_ that's considered normal _I'M_ the one to blame for being sexually assaulted… I really thought this place was better than Zaba…"

"*Kagome…,*" Ms. Higurashi said softly while locking the apartment door and turning off the main room's lights as sleep hovered around the abode's residents. "*Do you blame me for what happened?*"

"What?" her daughter's head whirled around to face her. ""*Of course not, why would you think something like that?*"

Miwa bit her lip. She carried a small cup of tea over with her to the main sitting area, evading Sota's limp, snoring form to take a seat near her daughter. "*…because I wasn't here to watch out for you. I'm working all the time now, but I can't help worrying about you and Sota and Ji-chan and… Was it my fault for not insisting that I knew what you were going to on Mekaday? Or for not asking around for more information about what goes on with the Limpics? Or—"

"Mama," Her daughter rested her hand on her mother's hand. "*No one could have protected me from this. It was… just the result of the situation's design. Neither you nor I knew what the Limpics really were, and I didn't know that that douche would try to force himself on me. What were you supposed to do: know everything that was happening everywhere and be everywhere all the time? You're not a goddess mom - - I mean, you are, but not in the literal sense.*"

Ms. Higurashi laughed softly but heartily. "I know what you mean, dear- - - oh! In English! I said it in English!"

Kagome beamed. "Immersion is the best way to learn a new language."

"Ee… Eemurzhun?" Miwa repeated. "*What does that mean?*"

"Maybe we still have a way to go though…," Kagome muttered. "A bean in a bowl of water is immersed in water. A Japanese speaker amongst many English speakers is immersed in the English Language."

Miwa nodded, but something caught her eye on the TV and she frowned. Kagome looked over too. "What is this…?"

She turned up the volume a bit to hear:

"_—police investigation into rape allegations against Erris Lucknow, son of multi-millionaire and agricultural tycoon Travis Lucknow, have been delayed due to the disappearance of the junior Mr. Lucknow. A warrant is out for his detention and questioning, and anyone with information on his whereabouts are asked to please contact the Rose Quarter Police Department._

_ "Daniel Kaunda, our Owl News Field Reporter, has more details. Danny, what can you tell us?"_

The picture flipped to a tanned young man with brown hair. Or it seemed that way - - black and white could be a bit vague. "_Sara, I'm here in front of Mother of the Mound Hospital in the Rose Quarter where Ms. Higurashi was released earlier today. According to a police spokesman Mr. Lucknow's car was found in the Golden Shore district, near Lime Plaza, around 5:00 AM on the morning of the alleged attack. He said that the doors were open, the engine running, and there were signs of a struggle, but neither Mr. Lucknow or his driver were present. Right now there are no leads as to either of their whereabouts and no official theories, but there are rumors of fowl play with the Hojo family, whose heir, Nobunaga Hojo, was originally slotted to have the only bid for Ms. Higurashi._"

"Oh god, you can't be serious…," Kagome muttered. Her mother shushed her.

"_Danny,"_ the anchor-woman Sara began off screen. "_How are the police handling this case now? The legal penalties for attempted rape are extremely high, but usually that isn't raised as an issue during the Lover's Limpics._

_ "You're right, Sara, it usually isn't,"_ he answered. "_But this is an extraordinary situation. A strong case can be made to say that Ms. Higurashi didn't know of the legal requirements that go along with the Limpics while Mr. Lucknow did—"_

"LEGAL REGQUIREMENTS!?" Kagome screamed. Sota jerked awake and knocked his sister in the jaw with the top of his head.

"Quiet you two, shh!" Their mother reprimanded.

"—_no legal precident to handle the matter. The Athena himself has issued a remark saying he will personally look into drafting a new bill to handle this kind of confusion in the future."_

_ "But do we have any other information on the disappearance of Erris Lucknow, Daniel?"_ Sara pressed.

"_Not at this time, Sara. The Regional Polisian Police Force is setting up a search perimeter around the district at this time, but no other information has been given.'_

And that was it. Her rapist was at large… but clearly not. Kagome sat back and shook her head. He wasn't at large… something had happened to him. Maybe he bailed to avoid getting caught or… no, the blood, the car, he knew he was busted. So maybe he just ran and kept on running? '_But not in the state I left him in… he would have gone to a hospital or something after what I did to his eye…_'

"You okay sis?" Sota asked, still rubbing where his head met her jaw. Kagome smiled and gave his bump a small kiss.

"I'm fine. Maybe you should go get some sleep," She said, rotating her jaw around to make sure it was still working..

"Uh, yeah…" Sota replied. He looked over to their mother and back to Kagome. "Could you, um, tuck me in?"

Kagome raised an eyebrow. She looked over at her mother, who didn't seem to understand the English and was too busy looking for details in the TV about the man who went after her daughter. Kagome turned back to Sota and nodded. He jumped off the couch and hurried into his room, Kagome following suit behind him.

Sota's room was small with light blue walls, a thin bed, a lamp stand and a dresser. Some dirty laundry scattered the floor and on the wall next to his bed he'd pinned up a poster of one of his favorite soccer players from Japan… she wondered for a moment if he'd ever get to play soccer with kids his own age again.

Sota had already climbed into his bed and was looking at her expectantly. Kagome started for a moment - - it had been quite a few years since she had done this for him, but soon her hands were finding their usual movements, pulling the comforter up to his neck where it made him feel most secure. "Sleep well, ototo."

"Neesan… What happened to you? Why won't any of you guys tell me what's going on?"

'_Thought so…_' Kagome sighed inwardly. She padded back to his bed and sat down carefully. "I was… a man attacked me, Sota."

His eyes got a little bigger. "…What happened?"

Sota was growing up fast, Kagome realized. Of course, they both had to back on Earth, but even now with his 9th birthday rapidly approaching, the boy was touching on topics that in _normal_ society he wasn't even supposed to suspect existed. But there was no such thing as _normal_ society, Kagome knew that. '_It's just what a lot of people pretend to be because being themselves is terrifying… and I don't blame them…_'

"I can't tell you everything, Sota; in a few years I can give you all the details. It's not because I don't think you can handle it, it's because… *it's because most people can't even fully comprehend the effects of what happened to me until they are fifteen or sixteen years old.* But… that guy I went out on a date with a few days ago, do you remember him?"

He nodded.

"He tried to hurt me. It's something called rape, when a man… or really, when one person forces their wants on someone else. That man tried to take something from inside me, and afterwards he probably would have killed me."

Her brother's eyes got much bigger. "He tried to take one of your organs!?"

"Sort of," Kagome replied. "Through the place where I go to the bathroom." She felt her brother cross his legs and clench up his body.

"That sounds scary," He whispered.

"It was," Kagome said softly, resting a hand on comforter-covered shoulder. "But I stayed calm and I fought back, and after doing a little damage of my own I escaped."

Sota relaxed a little bit. "You fought back?"

"Yup," Kagome smiled. "I even hit him with one of my high heels!"

Sota smiled, thought for a moment, and giggled. "That's silly, neesan."

"Silly, but effective," Kagome replied. She wondered how her brother was picturing this… maybe a man in the car laughing maniacally with a big box saying: "Kagome Higruashi's Organs." Then there was her, in her dress holding up one of her high heels like a baseball bat. It was a rather silly image.

"That's still cool, sis, that you fought him off," He said with a smile, though it dipped after a moment. "You didn't cry afterwards did you?"

"Well, I got that second concussion - - my memory is a little fuzzy, but I don't think I did," She replied.

"Cool," He said, shimmying back under his covers a little. "You're pretty cool, neesan… sometimes I think what dad said about you was wrong…"

Kagome took a breath as she ignored the memory flashes through her mind. "You better believe dad was wrong: I am one kick butt sister!" She said, tickle-attacking her brother through the sheets. A few seconds of high pitched laughing was all it took; Kagome gave him another pat, stood up, and headed towards the door, repeating her brother's weary 'goodnight' back to him.

* * *

"You're going to quit the academy?" Miroku said to Sango right after Kagome opened the door to her apartment. She blinked twice, one for each of them, before stepping over to the side of the doorway.

"Uh… I would say I've walked in on something, but I think I just opened my door and drama flew in,"

Miroku pointed to Sango with a gaping mouth. "She's quitting the Police Academy!" He repeated. Sango rolled her eyes.

"Really, Professor, I don't see why this is so concerning to you," She said, walking into the Higurashi residence with her satchel of books. Kagome stood there for a moment, watching Miroku's sad eyes follow. She gave him a knowing look.

"I think I do…," She muttered, quickly putting her hands together as if in handcuffs and raising them above her head. Miroku blushed, smiled weakly and shook his head. He darted a look at Sango's back and raised his hands into air in the cuff position. She rolled her eyes and waved him in.

"I haven't seen you all in a week and this is what… oh, never mind. So why are you quitting the force?" Kagome asked, closing the door behind Miroku. Sango dropped off her satchel and began organizing its contents before responding.

"Well… it didn't feel right. Serving in the military is one thing, but I didn't really have a choice in the matter - - my dad couldn't pay for me to go to college, so I joined the airforce and just so happened to excel. But that was fighting to protect ideas and my loved ones: The police is something different, for me. That is about trying to get into the mind of people who will commit crimes…," Kagome didn't miss Sango's lingering gaze towards her. The Higurashi girl replied with a parental 'keep going…' face. "Or, uh, feeling like a hero, but you're not. You're there enforcing the law as prescribed by the society you live in… and I didn't feel like I could do that and feel honest about my behavior."

"You should go to Aplorchard," Miroku chimed in. The two women stared for a moment. "It's way better then Polis… Well, I think it is anyway… Should I shut up?"

"Not necessarily," Kagome said.

"Yes," Sango said.

The women looked at each other with mild irritation when there was a knock at the door. Miroku leapt to answer it, finding a silver haired, blue and white clad half-demon holding an annoying stack of books in his arms.

"How did you knock…?" Miroku asked, letting Inuyasha in.

"I used my knee," Was his answer. Miroku muttered something about having a better answer to the question as Inuyasha moved inside. "And what the HELL were you thinking when you decided to talk to _the press_ about what we were doing!?"

"Hey, I was on a train from Tiner Sbark when they approached me!" Miroku shot back. "This random lady came up and asked me what I was doing with all of the books I had with me, what I was studying, and then when I got off the train I was jumped - - the train and train station are public spaces so—"

"I know how the anti-nuisance law works!" Inuyasha exclaimed.

"Hey, boys!" Sango called over them and clapped her hands. "Chill. How about we do what we came here to do?"

A few minutes of Inuyasha's grumbling passed with ease as the four got to work looking for more details into the origins of demons. Every now and then Kagome would answer one of Sango's questions about what they knew so far, catching her up to speed, and it paid off: Sango's fresh eyes were seeing details the others had missed.

"See? Here, in the census records you were looking at," Sango said, pointing to one of the pages of the a Zaban census book. "It mentions different groups of people, one of which is listed as 'Silver', and over here in the fourth Constitution the Zaban's mention taking the country from the "peoples touched by the silver." I bet you that means the Kwis and Demons - - from what you guys said, both groups of people were 'touched' or 'born' from the Silver Emperor."

"…Miroku I think she's right," Kagome said, picking up her notebook and jotting the idea down.

"Hey, I don't like this," Inuyasha said. "Demons and kwis aren't the same thing, don't go—"

"Inuyasha, this is how history works," Miroku jumped in. "A lot of times you find information that no one is comfortable with, the truth just isn't supposed to be comfortable. Maybe demons and the Kwis have related origins - - that doesn't mean they're the same thing, it just means that they had similar origins."

The Prince huffed and crossed his arms. Kagome looked at the two of them after putting full stop on one of her notes. "What exactly are the Kwis? Kaede gave me a bit of an explanation a long time ago, but it seemed pretty biased."

Miroku made an odd face, as if he wanted to say something damning but knew better. He reached forward to the table and pulled open one of the atlases. He opened it to the continent of Asigo and showed the eastern coast. On the southern edge was Texa Merica with the Republic of Ko north of it. West Merica just just above Ko, North Merica above that, and finally the Youkai Republic, only a fourth of the size of any of the other countries. But then, north of the Y.R., was a strange peninsula and archipelago, dozens of volcanic islands clumped together with no national borders. "Kwis Lands" was written above it all.

"The Kwis…" Miroku began, sitting back and rubbing his wrist. "Well, its hard for me to say what they are. I guess they're probably like Demons: in one way or another, they are related to humans. But they are excessively violent, even more so than Demons. For most of history they haven't really been noted, actually - - they only came into general knowledge within the last 200 years when the Demons moved into that area of the world. I was really surprised to find references to them in these old books."

"Only in the last 200 years?" Kagome repeated.

Miroku nodded. "Yes,"

"Demons consider that land evil," Inuyasha added in sourly.

"But… aren't demons supposed to be evil?" Sango asked. The others stared at her. "You know, heaven and hell, fire and brimstone, demons come from the depths of hell to tempt you and…?"

"Oh!" Kagome said. "That's the Judeo-Christian idea of demon. I think this is the Japanese idea of demon, or youkai. I know what you mean Sango, but another way to think about demons is… just as supernatural beings. Angels and devils would all be Youkai, and maybe vampires… but on that one I'm not so sure."

Sango shrugged.

"Anyway," Miroku went on. "Demons only moved into that corner of Asigo two centuries ago - - the Hyena clan, right Inuyasha? Yeah, well… they found the Kwis there. And the Kwis wiped out the entire clan. There's not a single Hyena demon left on Beji."

Kagome and Sango swallowed hard. Kagome was about to say something, but a glint in Miroku's bag caught her eye. It had a golden border… YES! Kagome's anticipation had been mounting ever since she found out Miroku was back in Polis, and now that she remembered she blurted out. "Did you bring the first sacrament?"

Miroku smiled, reached in his bag and pulled it out. It was a modern copy, but it was still verbatim. Kagome jumped up with a squeal, put the book on the table and poured over its table of contents, completely unaware that a certain hanyou had unsuccessfully hidden a grin while watching her. Sango and Miroku noticed though.

"Okay, let's see…wow this is a lot," She muttered. "But if memory serves me right the Mothers of Water are the ones who are supposed to write tomes of history, right?"

"Eh, Earth, actually," Miroku offered. Kagome sighed. "Hey, don't beat yourself up: You've had two concussions in one week, you're lucky to still know your name!"

Again Kagome didn't notice the ice that struck the room. Inuyasha and Sango tensed and glared at the professor, who a second later reddened and swallowed. They slowly looked back to Kagome, unfazed.

"That would have been interesting… I could have made myself a new name then. Oh, this looks good, the earliest tome from the Mothers of Earth."

Kagome flipped to that page and started reading, but she soon found herself reading out tax policy of an early colony. She flipped back to the table of contents, now with Sango and Miroku next to her, trying to choose which entry to look at next.

"Maybe the earliest writings on religious doctrine?" Miroku offered. "Maybe it'll tell the differences between the Emprists and the Mothers?"

They flipped to that page and started reading… and were soon reading the Fire Parable, the Water Way, and the others. No information on religious differences. They flipped back to the table of contents, found writing by a Mother of Air near the end of the Dark Times. It was full of prophecies and oracles that were so esoteric none of them could make sense of them. Inuyasha put down his book on the old days of the Kingdom of the Dog and Wolf to join them, looking over Miroku and Kagome's shoulders as they flipped back to the table of contents in frustration.

"Try out that one," he said, pointing to one of the sections that didn't have a specific house along with it. "At the start of the Mother's religions there weren't any houses; the leaders were just Mothers, Daughters, and Nieces of The Way."

They turned to the page and stared.

"It's in Arabic," Kagome said.

"Yeah, don't you know Arabic?" Sango replied. The two boys snapped their gazes to each other in confusion, then back to the girls.

"I know English, Japanese and Spanish, and bits of Korean, but not Arabic. My brain is only so big."

" Hah! You all depend on _me_ now!" Sango sang.

"When did you learn Arabic!?" Kagome asked. Then she thought and the answer came to her as Sango said it.

"I was in the military and studied it at Annapolis."

"Right, shoulda guessed. Anyway, read on oh literate one."

Sango nodded, lifted up the book, and began reading:

"Personal account of Fatana Rahman, Devoted Mother, Harbinger of Histories and Consolation:

"I fear my grandparents dreams die with me. They came to Ibeji from Earth, the home that their grandparents killed, hoping that human kind would find the keys to harmony, equilibrium, and devotion to Allah here. But it all failed. The New Japanese did so much damage to this world that is still taking shape. Their empire, the one they envisioned on Earth, manifested here, and destroyed so much. The clouds of radiation…"

Sango cut herself off and looked up to Kagome.

"The clouds of radiation, the bombs, entire cities snuffed out, so many lives, so many friends I have known who knew so much, who had so much to give… I fear. I am afraid for this world. No more electricity for there is no coal or oil, no more windmills to capture the wind or sensors to absorb the light of the Sun, Peace be to Mecca beyond it, and so many dark clouds keep out the light. My daughter's child was born with three legs, and the poor thing lived only long enough to know the pain of drowning in its own blood… Oh this world. I must put down my pen.

"I return to my writing seven days after I last scribbled. Even in this little colony on Asia-Ichigo, even with all of our tools and technology dying and failing, we hear news from distant lands. The survivors from Prialata have suddenly vanished, all in one night. And in their place are horrific creatures, bloodthirsty and vicious, taking such strange forms—"

"That must be the Kwis," Miroku murmered.

"—And they call themselves the Children of the Silver Emperor, Demons." Sango continued. The room was silent for a moment as the human heads refrained from staring at the half demon all at once. "The New Japanese have done something horrific, so against Muhammad the Prophet, peace be upon him. What have they done? What have they done? Man and beast mixed as one and with the arrogance of their father the Emperor. I cannot… I'm sorry, she starts using a different language here, I can't read it."

Kagome peered in at the page and noted the rest was written in Bengali, but noted that she couldn't read it either.

The room was quiet, aside from the wind outside, the real form blowing against the building and the artificial coming from passing cars. The alcove door to the rooftop garden slid open, and Ji-Chan hobbled inside, face as sour as ever. "*What are you all doing here…*" He murmured, but it was to himself, not a question. He mumbled on into his room and slid the door shut with a crack. The room was quiet again.

"'Clouds of radiation'?" Inuyasha finally asked. "You two know what that is?"

"Yes," Sango said quietly. She suddenly grabbed onto Kagome's hand. Her friend looked at her with confusion but turned herself to the young men around her, explaining the basics of a nuclear weapon, World War II, and the bombs dropped on her homeland.

"Entire cities…?" Miroku repeated, stunned.

"It's not possible," Inuyasha replied. "Nothing is _that_ powerful, not even a Demon. Who would ever make it? It's insane!"

"Never underestimate the small things in life like atoms, or desire for control - - chemistry and the laws that define it determine everything in the universe, materially," Sango replied with a hollow voice. Her back suddenly went stiff. "What is the oldest atlas we have of Prialata?" She asked. After a moment Kagome found their oldest atlas, the copied remnants of ancient maps from all over the world, the small pieces of things that made it through the Dark Times. Sango flipped open the book to a page with Prialata, grabbed a modern atlas of the same island, and stared at them.

"What is it?" Kagome asked.

Sango sat back after just a few seconds. "I'm not 100% positive, but… you remember the strange feeling of the buildings in Prialata?" She asked. Kagome nodded.

"Look at the map. In the old version the island has one large island. In the newer version there's a few ridges and smaller islands with a large harbor. I think an atom bomb was detonated on the ground of Prialata, not up in the air like Hiroshima. And the buildings… they're bomb shelters… or the ones that survived."

* * *

"War…," Inuyasha hissed at himself. "Everyone's always in such a fucking hurry to go kill their neighbor and take his stuff… the fuck is with - -eh- - with humans and demons! It's stupid as fuck."

"Says the guy who goes on violent rampages when he doesn't have to be in civilized company," Miroku replied, catching up to his enraged friend while carrying an umbrella. Rain and sunset had moved in on the crew, who were walking off their various emotions instead of keeping them stewing in the apartment, one of which was thankful to be off crutches.

"How can you be so fucking relaxed about this!" Inuyasha roared back, grabbing Miroku by the collar. "People fucking _burned_ each other alive and for what!? A fucking Empire? I giant ass country!? Bragging rights on who's got the biggest dick!?"

"Inuyasha, you're scaring the pedestrians," Miroku replied. And, in fact, he was. The half demon let down the professor and kept stalking.

"It ain't fucking right," He seethed. "No one should have that much power. I mean… it fucks with _kids_, before they're even born! The fuck, Miroku, _the FUCK!?_"

"He's taking this a lot harder than I would have guessed," Kagome muttered, walking next to Sango a few meters behind the boys.

"…Nuclear weapons are terrifying things," Sango said softly. "And I bet it's even more distressing for him to learn that Demons came out of the use of nuclear weapons somehow or another."

"Well yeah, but it's not like the first demon used nukes or something, and it also isn't like demons are mutated humans; beta radiation doesn't work like that… Though… I wonder if the bigger issue for him is what this means about his religion. The Silver Emperor came from Napan and used nukes right as people figured out there was no oil or coal here to fuel their technological systems… Inuyasha was brought up in a place where Silver Emperor seems to be all anyone ever talks about. I know he also studied with the Mothers, but still… the more I think about it the more this turns his whole world upside down."

Sango nodded slowly. "I hadn't thought of that… Um… Kagome…? how are you doing? It was just a week ago…"

Kagome felt Sango tense slightly next to her. She sighed. "I'm doing fine, Sango, you don't have to worry. I've had a few nightmares about it, but I learned this trick from a Daughter of Water a while back, where when I wake up I remind myself that I'm here, right now, that the stuff that I am remembering is in the past and that I'm safe. I repeat that a few times and then I'm calm and can go back to sleep, and I'm even starting to do it while I'm in the middle of a dream. It's funny… but there is a perk to having gone through what my dad did to us… because I had to learn how to deal with the pain he wrought, I already knew how to deal with the pain that Erris guy did.

"But, honestly, I'm concerned about the fact that he's gone miss—"

"Hey you!" Kagome heard from an alley to the right. She jumped and looked down the way, Sango peering down it behind her. "You're Kagome Higurashi, right?"

A few seconds of peering revealed that is was a small boy with orange-brown hair and blue eyes who had called out to her. Kagome raised an eyebrow and nodded.

"Ambassador Kagura Nogumo wants to talk to you about your research," the kid said, jabbing his thumb behind him. Kagome looked down the alley, the fence at its end, and the lighted area beyond the bricks. Even for a girl who had found a peace with being attacked and almost raped, it was too sketch. "Right now. Only you."

"The hell she's going alone," Sango shot back. "Who are you anyway?... wait, _what_ are you?"

"Hah, silly little human, I'm a ferocious fox demon!" The kit yelled back. The girls tried hard not to giggle. "Hey! I'm ferocious! I could take you both with my hands tied behind my—"

In one swift movement Sango was up and over Kagome and landed on top of the demon. She knocked him upside the head, grabbed him by the end of his collar, and pulled him up into the air at arm's length.

"Hey, lemme go! How dare you defile a proud fox demon like—"

"If I hear one more squeak out of you, any other demon, or half-demon out there who is so _sure_ that humans are stupid in weak I'll introduce you to a weapon of mine that I can _guarantee_ you will make you think otherwise. Got it little—OW! THE RAT BIT ME!"

Inuyasha turned just in time to see the young fox demon hurtling towards him and smack him in the face. Miroku stood quietly as Inuyasha flew backwards, flipped over a fire hydrant, and rolled into a tree. The professor slowly raised his hands and clapped.

"What the _HELL_?!" He yelled, throwing the kit off is face and back towards the girls. The child rolled like a ball to the feet of Kagome and tried to stand up, took one step, missed, and fell on his face. Kagome swooped down and picked him up. "Oh, are you okay?"

"I… don't… need…," He tried to keep talking, but his eyes were swirling. Kagome carefully picked bits of the cobblestone side-walk out of the scratch on his forehead.

"Really, the hell is this!?" Inuyasha yelled, stomping over to the kit. All other pedestrians by this point had run off to whereever they'd been going.

"H-hey, you butt out!" The kid said. "This is between me, Ms. Kagura, and Higurashi!"

"Hunh – I've never met the kid before and he's still getting my name correct more often than the guys who practically said he was in love with me," Kagome remarked to Sango.

"Kagura!?" The kit yelped as Inuyasha grabbed him and started yelling into his face, not caring he had the boy upside down. "What does that witch want with Kagome! Cough it out you washed up fuzz-ball! - - - wait, who said they were in love with you!?"

"I-I-I-I d-d-on't kn-kn-know! St-o-o-op sh-sh-shak-k-king me-e-e-e!"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome scolded, snatching the boy out of Inuyasha's hands and elbowing the half-demon in the head. The prince stumbled, tripped again, and wound up on his butt. "There, sit and stay like a good dog!"

"But really kid, what does Kagura want with us?" Sango asked, eyeing the boy over, who seemed to be close to tears.

The boy's head turned left and right, and, affirming he was SERIOUSLY outnumbered and out matched, started shaking and crying. "I-I-I don't know! There were these big guys that told me to go find Kagome Higurashi and they'd give me money but I had to bring her to this Kagura lady please don't eat me!"

"We're not going to eat you," Kagome said, smoothing his hair.

"Usually it's the other way around," Miroku said, walking up to the boy. "What is your name, fox demon?"

"…Shippo." He whimpered.

"Okay then Shippou, if you lead us to this Kagura person, we _as a group_ will… uh, what did you want Ms. Higurashi to do?"

"Talk to her!" He sniffed.

"Well then, we will hear her message as a group. We are going to carry you in so whoever coerced you into this can see that it was done against your will, okay?"

Shippou shuddered but nodded. "I… I heard them talking about something big! Between the demon countries, something really big and bad, like the civil war really long ago but even bigger, and something about research way up in the north!"

"It's okay Shippo, you don't have to keep saying stuff, we're not going to hurt you, okay?" Kagome said. Inuyasha growled at the statement but she merely leered at him in return. But Inuyasha's face paled. "What is it Inuyasha?"

"A war… like the civil war, but bigger… Kagome, those weapons you were talking about…"

"Kagome! Sango!"

The group whirled around to see who was calling. Ms. Higurashi came into view, still in her formal work clothes, but her make-up tear stained.

"…Mom…?" Kagome breathed. She had never seen her like this. This was terror. Not even around her father… something was wrong.

"Kagome!" She yelled again, ran forward and grabbed onto her daughter. "Domo arigato gozaimasu, kami—!"

"Mom, what is it!?" Kagome asked nervously, tossing the kitsune at Miroku. "Mom, *get a grip, I can't understand you! What is it!?*"

"*Come back home now!*" Her mother suddenly ordered.

"Mom, we're kinda—"

"Sota!" She yelled, but she started crying again. Kagome's lungs failed. She grabbed onto her mother.

"What is it!? *What happened!?*"

"*Taken! I got home and they, the school, they rang and told me the police are already looking for him, they said a car, a limousine rode up to the school and someone got out and grabbed him! Not my children- - please, Kagome, no more, come home now!*"

Kagome stood and wasn't sure how she was still doing so. Her wide eyes darted down the dark alley to the yellow light beyond the brick wall.

* * *

_Authors Notes:_

_Commenters, y'all are awesome. You literally got me writing this story a day earlier than I was planning. And that was probably a good thing considering how much work I wound up having this week. Le sigh. But a chapter happened! Wootness!_

_Chapter Preview:_

_What does Kagura want to say to Kagome alone? And does she have anything to do with the kidnapping of her younger brother? We'll find out next chapter, as well as learning Shippo's deeper ties to the situation than it appears. Be prepared for a bit more Inu-Kag fluff (the Mir-San fluff is coming soon, oh you shall see), and perhaps the beginning of the end of the group's time in Polis? So much has been learned, so many possibilities lay ahead… find out soon!_

_I feel like I just channeled a TV anchor. (shivers)_

_P.S. : There is an opportunity WAY later in the story for there to be a sex scene involving two of everyone's favorite characters. However, in lieu of the recent purge on ffnet and rating regulations, I am not sure whether I should post that on here. How do people feel about me writing that specific part of the chapter and then uploading that uncensored version on a different website?_

_Music advice: Lucite Tokki - Summer_


	13. Chapter 11

_Sorry for taking longer than usual with the update everyone! I've had so much I've had to do in such a small amount of time - - there were moments where running out into the street screaming manically sounded like a wonderful idea. Anyway, here is the next chappy!_

* * *

Chapter 11

This wasn't right at all. Kagome sighed angrily as her mother continued to throw out her argument for why Kagome needed to come home immediately, but it was really just a laundry list of all the things that were terrifying the woman.

"* - and I don't understand what's going on and kidnapped! Kidnapped my baby, after you getting attacked and - *"

"Time is of the essence, Kagome," Miroku whispered to her. She nodded, hand still over her eyes.

"Mom! MOM! MAMA! MIWA-SAN!" She eventually screamed. "Just come with us, okay? We have a trained military officer and a half demon prince with us, we'll be fine."

"Hey, don't I count for anything?" Miroku asked.

"You're a college professor," Sango replied.

"Yeah but I'm a man," He replied.

"If we kick you in the balls you're down in seconds," Kagome shot back. Miroku's shoulders slumped.

"No, Kagome, ie, kore wa—"

"Okay, mom? I can't bicker like this anymore, we have to go, I don't know how long the ambassador will be where she is…"

After a momentary pause Shippo coughed.

"Mom, I know this is going to sound completely off topic, but- -"

"Nihongo." Mrs. Higurashi replied.

"*FINE! I know this sounds like it is coming out of nowhere, but where did you meet dad? You know, when you decided to marry him?"

"*I - - what? *"

"*I'll explain later - - please!*"

"* All right, all right! I met him…," Her voice dipped down closer to its usual tone, but she still sounded sharp. "*…during my master's thesis practicum. That was… I was in South America, Chile, yes. I was working in the desert there working to…,*" Her voice trailed for a moment, but her eyes opened wider, pupils dilating. "*I was working on remedial ion exchange water purification systems, developing basic technology to give to the local population to remove unstable stephanite and adamite from the drinking supply. Kagome… I…*" Her hands began shaking.

"Mom…" Kagome muttered, stepping forward and taking her mother's hands.

"Watashi wa… I made it! I made Clarence!" She coughed out. Her hands clutched her head but her daughter caught her as she began to crumple. "*My GOD Kagome! That _MAN!_ He took my technology and turned it into a _religion!?_ *"

"What is she saying?" Miroku asked fervently, guiding them all into the alley to evade the glances of any passersby who hadn't been frightened by the group's earlier antics.

"Inuyasha, can you translate? My father—" Kagome began.

"No!" Miwa said. She brought herself up to "Tachiagaku Ishihara. He… he was a professor at university. He met me and Takoku, he told- - * Uff, he introduced us in Chile but then Takoku convinced him to open another program to South Korea, I never knew why. But Kagome - - Dr. Ishihara was on the board of consultants Takoku brought with him to Ibeji!*"

Kagome nodded, waiting a moment so Inuyasha could finish translating for poor Miroku. "Inuyasha, will you keep translating? Just for a second - - you see… I think the Silver Emperor was my dad."

Inuyasha stopped translating mid-sentence and Miroku dropped Shippo, who slammed his head against the ground.

"What?!" the kit screamed. "Wh-what!? Heh, who do you think you are, saying the Great Emperor was a hum—"

"My name is Kagome Higurashi, and I'm not from this planet Shippo. I'm one of the aliens who landed in Prialata a couple of months back who accepted asylum here. The reason my mother and I - - and Sango too - - know 'Demon tongue' is because it is another language, or way of talking. On Earth, where we are from, it is called Japanese, and I'm from a country called Japan. It sounds like Napan because that's what the place was named after - - New Japan in English, or normal human talk for you. Over so many years New Japan just became Napan, and - -,"

The fox demon gasped. "Isn't Napan the oldest country in the world?! You, half-demon, isn't that right?"

Inuyasha twitched. "I'm _not_ _Hey Half-Demon_, I'm Prince Inuyasha of—"

"WHAAAAT?!" Shippo cried. "YOU'RE the PRINCE?! No way, the Prince has to be someone way cooler than you!"

The kit cried again when he received a clonk on the head.

"ANYWAY!" Kagome yelled. "My father was born and raised in a fishing village on Noto Island, and when he lived on Earth and was named the first colony's governor he made it very clear that he was naming _his_ new city New Noto, the—"

"The same as New Noto now, the capital of Napan!" Shippo squeaked. Miroku cleared his throat anxiously.

"Yes," Kagome replied, wiping at some sweat. This was all taking too long. She took hold of her mother and started pulling them towards the fence. "Anyway, it just makes sense. Sango, Inuyasha, you both know what life was like for my family when our father was around, and my mother and I know how much he desired more hierarchy in society. He claimed English was the language of modernity and only spoke it with his associates - - Japanese was too beneath him. We were objects to control and to use, and while I always knew he was an extremely ambitious person, I didn't realize…

"I didn't realize the reason he forced me into an advanced study program for politics and international relations," She began, pausing next to the fence in front of the brick wall. "Was because he wanted me to become a politician, someone he could puppet into power and then use to secure more of it for himself. And on this planet… thousands of years ago, when he and the few dozen settlers arrived, the first people on Beji, he could have made his perfect hierarchy. He and his associates had the technology to make sure people didn't get sick from the water here, which is full of silver. They had the legal and military authority to rule however they wanted. But my dad… he wanted this. He wanted a planet at his beck and call. He wanted to take over Earth I bet… that's probably why he let me study abroad in South Korea and Taiwan, but I'm betting he could never figure it out. He was a great manipulator but not a good strategist or politician."

"Thanks for the psychological tangent but its gonna take a lot more than that before I start believing you're one of the children of the Silver Emperor," Inuyasha slurred. Kagome rolled her eyes but saw her mother was starting to panic again.

"Mom, * if someone actually kidnapped Sota then what could we accomplish by being at the apartment? Let's go figure out what's beyond the wall.*"

"*We would just be home…*" Mrs. Higurashi said weakly.

Kagome didn't say that it wasn't home for her.

Inuyasha helped Mrs. Higurashi over the first fence and the brick wall beyond it as Shippo led the way to where Kagura and the 'large men' were. The kit ran ahead muttering about being late, forcing the others to jog just to keep sight. The alley was long and opened onto a yellow lit road that was speckled with litter and scant of life.

"Where is this…?" Sango murmured.

"The Sanctuary Ward? Wow… I've never seen it in person," Miroku replied. Up ahead Shippo scoffed.

"Sanctuary nuthin'! This is Little Hakin, the place where all the Igutoni live!"

They chased after Shippo deeper into the area. Kagome noted the stark difference between Little Hakin and Polis proper: weedy trees grew out of cracks and untended city gardens, cracks and potholes broke every road and sidewalk, and paint seemed a rare commodity for the generic, blocky buildings. Unless graffiti was taken into account – there was plenty of that.

Three city blocks passed by and they turned left, down a side street with one working light pole. Shippo scampered into view beneath its light, and what Kagome had thought was a stone statue stepped to the side and into the darkness. She looked behind her to see if anyone else had seen it, but only caught the gaze of Inuyasha for one moment. She wasn't sure what to feel about his apathetic face. She turned back around slowly and hurried to the light, being extra careful to stay away from the spot where the stone, minotaur statue stood motionless.

"* I really don't think we should be here… *" Mrs. Higurashi whispered as they trudged down the black alley. Kagome heard Sango say something in reply, but thunder above drowned out the details. Up ahead she saw Shippo stop at the end of the alley and wait for them. A few moments later the rest of the group arrived at the kit's place and found themselves in a small plaza. The buildings nearby were low and sandy colored, with broken glass filled in with plywood and graffiti scribbling reflecting the amber light of the plaza lamps. The plaza itself was floored with ancient brick and a small fountain that looked like it hadn't seen water for quite some time.

Kagura stood tense halfway between the fountain and the road. Dressed in a long, black over kimono-dress with bright yellow leggings underneath, she seemed like lightning incarnate.

"*You, fox demon!*" Kagura yelled. "*Is your brain miniscule as well!? She was to come ALONE!*"

"*Th-they didn't let me!*" Shippo stammered, trying to look brave. Instead he looked close to loosing control of his bowels.

"Ugh, it doesn't matter, you've taken so long as it is…" She hissed, whipping out her fan and wafting herself lightly.

Inuyasha pushed past Kagome and Shippo and stood in front of them all, hands on his hips and staring down the dozen, muscled, feral men lingering in different nooks around the plaza.

"The hell do you want Kagura!?" He called out.

The red-eyed woman grinned mockingly. "I'm sorry little Prince but I am here to talk to Kagome, not to you!"

"Sucks for you then 'cause whatever you gotta say to her is going through me first!"

Kagome raised an eyebrow at the half-demon; what was all of this? She squeezed her mother's hand for a moment before pushing forward and getting past him. "I'll talk to her oka-?"

"No, Kagome!" Her mother gasped. Inuyasha grabbed Kagome and threw her out of the way right as an axe swiped at where her head had been. She pushed herself out of the gravely road, flipping over to see Inuyasha snapping the arm a giant man with a ram's head. Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement - - Kagome rolled over twice and stuck her leg out, catching the foot of a running demon and sending it flying and screaming down the road.

There was a giant clang back near her mother! Kagome looked back to the alley - - Miroku had gotten a pipe from somewhere and was heaving as he tried to push back the Minotaur she'd seen earlier. She saw Sango jump and land a kick firmly in the creature's eye, but the demon's arm rose fast and knocked Sango into the wall of a building.

"KAGOME!" Her mother's hoarse scream. Suddenly Kagome was in the air and she couldn't breath - - she looked down and saw a red, slimy tongue wrapped around her chest. She tumbled to the ground and started being dragged backwards towards another dark alley.

There was a roar and a scream and then the tongue loosened. Kagome gasped and pushed herself out of the cut tongue and whirled around, finding herself face to face with white haired beast with red eyes, crouching in the road and growling at her. She was going to die? No… the beast was wearing shredded clothes… Inuyasha's.

"They can take the form of different creatures…" Kagome's mind pushed through her lips. It wasn't a complete transformation: Inuyasha's hair was bristling and his nails had taken on the curl of dog paws, and he carried himself like a quadruped but most of the rest of his body seemed normal.

Except his slobbering, bared teeth, directed at her. So this was what a mouse felt when it met the gaze of a hunting cat. She couldn't move, even though her brain was screaming at her to do SOMETHING.

With a snarl Inuyasha leapt out of sight. Kagome turned around to see him land on top of one of the stone looking creatures and knock its head into the ground till it shattered. He did this again with another attacking demon, then he flew over to the minotaur, ripping off one of its legs. It howled as a burst of sand erupted through the area. Kagome turned her head down and winced tight to keep the sand out of her lungs, but she still wound up coughing. She could vaguely hear more scuffling, but as she slowly stood up she could see only the light post nearby and the curb of the plaza. And then the rapid, shuffling gait of a black dress and yellow leggings.

"This is why I told you should have come sooner!" Kagura hissed as she grabbed Kagome's wrist and dragged her towards the alley. Kagome tried to take a deep breath to scream but caught more sand and started coughing instead.

"Stop it, you're lungs can't take it," the woman said above her. Suddenly Kagome found Kagura's black, red, and white fan in front of her face. The fan twisted slightly, and the air around her and the Attaché of the Youkai Republic cleared. For a moment she thought the red-eyed woman was angry, but after another moment Kagome identified the look on her face as rushed and irritated.

"Stop researching the origins of Demons," Kagura said quietly, still pointing her fan at Kagome.

"Wha-… why!?"

"Because otherwise your brother is going to die," She replied calmly.

"What where's Sota?" Kagome blubbered.

"You need to disavow your research in its entirety first."

"…why." It wasn't a question, it was a demand.

"None of your concern. We have eyes in the Great Library that will let us know if you or anyone you are associated with continues the research. I don't have a lot of time, and neither does your brother, so disavow yourself. Right now. And I can end this."

"…You don't even want to be here…?" Kagome muttered, but she was sure of it. Something leaked from Kagura's face, a slip of concern for the girl she was trying to coerce.

"_Disavow it_ Kagome!" Kagura repeated louder.

"Why are you doing this!? Kagura, I don't know you that well but this is - -"

The fan was pressed up against Kagome's lips. Kagome sighed in irritation. "The longer you keep this up the more of your brother's soul Kanna is pulling out, and that doesn't grow back like brain cells. So shut up and do what is right for you and your family or else you're brother is going to be about as useful as a marionette."

Kagome's eyes widened and stung as the sand in her eyebrows fell down into them. What the hell was happening? Her brother, Sota - why? Why was Kagura doing this!?

'_Or Kagura's leader - I don't have any choice right now_'

"Okay, fine, I promise not to look any deeper into the origins of Demons!" Kagome yelled, pushing the fan back. Kagura cursed and pushed her cold hand over Kagome's mouth.

"Kagome! Where are you!" she heard Inuyasha yell, followed by Sango calling the same thing and the wails of her mother.

"Don't do that again," Kagura hissed. With her fan carrying hand she waved at something farther down the alley, and after a moment she saw a lizard skinned demon race by with a young girl with white hair and a mirror, a large satchel over his back. Large enough to fit an 8-year-old boy.

"You're lucky I saved you, by the way." Kagura whispered intensely low, keeping her gaze on the spot where the demon had rushed into the sand storm. "The Lucknow boy wont bother you again, so remember that next time I need to talk to you like this – you owe me."

"What…?" Kagome whispered back. "Next time?"

Kagura's gaze flicked over to the spot in the sand storm again. "Officially I need you to stop researching the origins of demons using familial coercive measures. Unofficially…," She said nothing. She only gave Kagome a wink.

"He is deposited," A cold breathy voice suddenly said. Kagome saw the girl in white reappear with the demon. Kagura nodded. She took a feather out of her hairpiece and slipped her thumb against it. With a whir it unfolded itself into a large, thin platform. Kagome stared at it - - that kind of technology was light years from where most things on Beji were supposed to be. Kagura told Kagome to sit and stay still as she, the girl, and the demon stepped on board.

"Don't forget loose ends, Kanna," Kagura said. The girl nodded, turned around to face the demon, and then there was a blinding, cold light. When Kagome opened her eyes the demon was rolling out of the converted feather dead. Kagura flipped her fan once and the device was airborne, and a moment later out of sight in the night sky. Lighting cracked and struck a nearby mountain, sending a swirl of violet and royal blue around the horizon.

The air became hazy again, but through the sand she felt small pellets of rain starting to come down. For a few moments Kagome couldn't breath let alone move, but then she remembered Sota. His soul? Taken? Or a chunk of it? With shaky legs and sweating arms she turned and ran into the plaza, shouting her brother's name. She tripped over something, a body - - thankfully it was a demon's. "Sota!"

"Kagome!" She heard – it was Inuyasha. But she saw the bag ahead of her, leaning next to the hazy outline of the fountain. She booked it and tore open the bag. There he was… eyes open… still face.

Kagome reached in and felt his neck. Thank all there was that she felt a pulse. "Sota…?" She said hesitantly.

His face slowly turned to look up at her. "Oh… * hey sis… when did you get here? *"

Kagome swallowed hard. There was definitely something wrong with him. "I-I'm taking you home," She said softly.

"* Oh… okay…*" He said with a smile, but the smile faded and he stared at the inside of the bag again. She carefully reached inside and took his hand. After a few moments of holding it he squeezed back weakly. She frowned hard and pulled her brother out of the bag, fixing his hair a bit. He stood there and let her quietly.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha appeared over the fountain, his clothes ripped and bloody in spots. Rain was starting to peck at the ground. "Are you o-!?"

"I-I'm okay," She interjected, but her voice cracked. Something was wrong with her brother and, if what had been told to her was true, nothing could be done to reverse it. And it was because she went and got curious about something big… Kagome looked down to Sota. A drop of rain smacked him on his nose, but he didn't blink. After a few seconds he used his free hand to wipe at the water on his face.

Inuyasha jumped over to Sota and looked him dead in the eye. He snapped his fingers in front of the boy's face - - this made him flinch. "Oh, hi Inuyasha," Sota said.

"Hey…," Inuyasha replied gravely. "Tell me what you see in the mirror."

Kagome frowned deeper in confusion, but Sota jumped. "Soccer… soccer soccer soccer…" The boy said, wincing hard. He took his hand back from Kagome's grip and pressed both against his temples. "Laughing… no dad, don't want him… please go away, stop, I can't feel it…!"

Inuyasha nodded once and looked up to Kagome. "Someone's locked up part of his soul."

"That's… what Kagura said…," Kagome replied softly. She leaned down and gave her brother a kiss on the forehead - - he stopped wincing and his arms dropped to his sides. She picked him up and pushed back the tears threatening her eyes. After a few moments Sota's arms wrapped around her neck, and she felt him start to drool on her shirt.

"What else did she say? I FOUND HER, SHE'S OVER IN THE PLAZA, SHE'S FINE!" Inuyasha yelled out.

Kagome heard her mother call out frantically and the others trying to placate her - - everyone was alive. Kagome exhaled deeply. "Kagura… she told me to stop researching the origins of demons… but… she told me not to stop at the same time."

Inuyasha frowned. "Well which one is it?"

"She made me swear to stop researching that or else… more of my brother's soul would be taken. But when this girl and a demon… oh right, they killed that lizard guy… when this white haired girl and demon were dropping off Sota, Kagura hinted that she _personally_ wants us to keep researching. Something really weird is going on…"

"Kagome!" Her mother found her, and in a moment Kagome had her mother's sobs added to the various fluids getting put on her shirt. The rain started to pick up as Miroku and Sango came into view, and little Shippo. Kagome saw him start to cry as Ms. Higurashi frantically tried to get her son to talk to her. '_He's blaming himself…'_ Kagome thought.

Miroku looked around warily at the deserted plaza. "Let's get out of here, we need to call the police to let them know we found your son, Ms. Higurashi."

The professor gently guided them towards the way they had come as Sango helped support Ms. Higurashi's babbling form. Kagome moved away from the group to the soppy kitsune, waving on the others.

"Hey… are you going to be okay Shippo?"

He sat there with a quivering lip. "It's all my fault! I made all this happen!"

Kagome sighed and reached down to pick him up.

"No! I still need my money! I'll wait here until they come back and give it to me!"

Kagome paused for a moment, but then she understood. "Shippo, where are your parents?"

Shippo's lip quivered even more until he bit down on it. "They're at work,"

"No… they're not, are they?"

There were the water works. The kit started bawling incoherently and Kagome picked him up gently. "It's okay Shippo… well, its not great, but its going to be okay."

"B-b-b-b-but the money!"

"Kagura and those other men aren't coming back to pay you, Shippo. I'm sorry, but I think they used you."

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAHAAAHAA AAAAAA!"

"Kagome, do you want to catch Blue Fever?" Miroku called at her, holding a piece of sheet metal over his head. He was standing in front of a heap of industrial scrap, which explained where he found the pole from earlier. "Come on!"

"I'm coming!" She called back. "Shippo, do you have a place to go to?"

She waited a few moments for his sobs to slow and he shook his head, wiping his eyes.

"Then how about you come with me for now? I know the Prime Mother - - If I can't convince my mother to let you stay with me then I'm sure the Prime Mother will find a place for you to stay."

What Kagome said wasn't quite as kind as she wanted it to be - - she wished she could have said for certain that she could take the kit in. But the truth was she didn't know. Would her mother even allow it, considering how much it cost to feed everyone as it was now? Where would he stay? There were more questions too that she didn't have an easy answer to. But she still picked him up and hurried over to cover Miroku was providing, catching Inuyasha's eye up ahead as he helped guide the troupe back to the wall. For a moment she saw him look at Shippo, but then back to her, and suddenly his face went soft again. There was something else too in his face, something distant, as if he were remembering something longingly.

* * *

_I'm having fun with the double meaning of names and foreshadowing. ^_^_

_And yeah, bit of a shorter chapter this go round. I wanted to get it out to everyone quickly. With luck and A LOT OF WORK I will get the next one out in a week's time._

_Chapter Preview:_

_Something is stirring in the demon realms of Beji, keeping to the shadows as it prepares. But for what? Kagome, Inuyasha, and the others contemplate the largely unseen shifts in the political world around them and find the loophole to Kagura's threat. How will they continue to pursue the origin of demons, and unknowingly put themselves on track for the largest confrontation the planet has every seen? Keep reading! And stroke my ego though comments! Seriously, it makes me write ALL the faster._

_Be all the awesome people, or redefine the meaning of the word awesome. That is your duty for the day._


	14. Chapter 12

Life just went very crazy for me. For one, I'm taking the GRE next Friday – YIKES – so this upcoming week I will not be doing any creative writing. I've also been teaching English and martial arts, but I just found out today that the martial arts school I've attended for 12 years is closing at the end of the year. I've been doing my best to keep the sobbing to a minimum (I've instead been shouting angry social commentary at every inane advertisement I've seen on television… you know, maybe I should try to keep that to a minimum as well).

So here we go! The long awaited for Chapter 12 that will embark us towards a new direction of the story. I aim to update again over Thanksgiving – hope you enjoy what's to come.

* * *

Chapter 12

Kagome put her attention straight ahead at the House of Fire. All there was in the world was that black door. The sky was not overcast and the color of blood. The wind was not blowing apocalyptically. Nope. Just that door. Sango got to it first and opened it, stepping inside and then holding it open for her friend. Kagome nodded in thanks and stepped inside, holding Shippo a little closer in her arms.

It turned out that Polis, and much of the rest of the eastern coast of Asigo, had a monsoon season during the summer, though that wasn't quite the right explanation for it. Having seen the weather maps Sango was sure that what was really happening was that large hurricanes were forming every few days and slamming into various parts of the continent. Kagome had then reminded her American friend that the Japanese experienced Typhoons too, and thereafter realized why all the large cities of the Mericas were along inland rivers and lakes instead of on the coast.

They passed through the sandstone entry corridor adorned with red and white drapes and checked in at the front desk. After a wait of ten minutes, and far too many leers targeted at the already frightened kitsune, the three were led upstairs to the Prime Mother's alcove. Kaede herself opened the door. "Welcome children, enter kindly."

The room was just large enough to escape being cozy. The colors of the other houses; golds and oranges from the house of earth, sapphire and green from water, white and indigo from air, and the red and burgundy of fire; were all around in vases, pictures, books and sitting stools. A small table stood in the corner of the room near the large, tall windows, and that was where Kaede directed them.

"And thous' name is Shippo, verily?" The old woman asked. Shippo fidgeted until Kagome blew on his hair.

"Oh! Uh, y-y-yes ma'am!"

Kaede's smile drew out the kind lines in her face. "No need to be so formal, child. Besides, does an Emprist need to show deference to the Prime Mother?" They reached the table and Sango helped pull out a chair for the miko-clad woman.

"W-well… I guess not, b-but you nice and important, and I'm scared, so… I think I should at least be respectful."

Kaede nodded slowly in her chair. "A straightforward but diplomatic answer. If only politicians could be more like you."

Shippo laughed nervously. He looked up at Kagome as if asking if it was okay to smile. She chuckled silently and smiled in return, and he smiled back, settling into her arms a little deeper.

"Now, young Shippo," Kaede began. "How did you come to live in Polis?"

"Hunh? Me? Oh, um… my dad came here for work."

"So he brought ye here?" She replied.

"No… I'm from Dezeray. My dad's from Hakin, and I guess my mom was from Dezeray too."

Kaede nodded slowly in understanding, but perked her eyes up when she saw the lost gazes of the two women before her. "Ah. Dezeray is a small country on the southwest border of Iguto, in the Wuhan Mountains. Several hundred years ago the Vixen Queendom, ruled by fox demons, ruled most of the continent, including what we now know as Iguto and the wolf lands of Sokoku. Even most of Ko was under their rule. But the last Queen cut herself off from the Emprist religion in favor of the Musas, sparking a civil war that destroyed the country, killed off most of the fox clan, and allowed the wolf and dog clans to rise to power."

Kagome thought back for a moment and remembered that the Throne of the Wolf and Dog ('_or is it kingdom of… and is dog first or is it wolf? The hell with it, I'll figure that out later_') only started a few years ago. She nodded and checked to see Sango was following as well.

"Yeah, but we didn't die out like the lion clan or the apes!" Shippo butted in. "We're still here! Its just those filthy humans in- - - oh! I mean those people from Dezeray forced us to either convert to their religion or die. My dad said mom was one of the tricksters - - you know, the people who claimed to have converted to the Individualist religion but never really gave up her allegiance to the Silver Emperor…" He trailed off, looking up at Kagome. Their group had decided not to let anyone else know about their theory about who was the Silver Emperor of lore, not until they could mount more evidence. Kagome winked at him, reassuring him that he hadn't crossed the line of secrecy.

"But isn't there a lion demon in Inuyasha's—" Sango began.

"_Prince_ Inuyasha," Shippo and Kaede said in unison. The two women looked at the older and younger duo.

"Well, he's a prince isn't he? Ordained by the spirit of the… uh, Silver Emperor?" Shippo stumbled at the end.

"Force of habit," Kaede shrugged.

Sango rolled her eyes. "I know that there is a lion in INUYASHA's security detail, so they haven't died out, but have, uh, _clans_ of demons been dying out a lot? Aren't they super strong and live for ridiculously long periods of time?"

Kaede looked to the kit. "Would ye like to answer?"

Shippo nodded. "Okay, it goes like this. The sea swallowed the first, the apes broke their chests, and the bees ate up all the honey. The Lions were cursed, and the rabbits weren't best, and the Swans lost all their money. The foxes were more sunny, but they didn't find it funny when their queen's head went all runny. So the canines came in, and with much chagrin, the versed and the rest eat tunny."

Kagome and Sango slowly looked at each other. Neither had any idea of what just happened.

"I fear thou's companions know not the Fox's Lyre," Kaede said slowly to Shippo. "I shall explain:

"Most of demon history isn't known to humans, but some things, like the Foxe's Lyre, illuminate a bit for us. About 500 years after the end of the Dark Times a demonic state arose in Nafkia, the continent to the south where you find Napan. But it collapsed not long after, leaving many temples and palaces across the whole continent. About a thousand years ago bee demons lived in most of those palaces and temples and bared humans from entering, in fact usually collecting humans as fodder for their honey."

Even Shippo gulped.

"But during that time two kingdoms had risen and collapsed on the continent of Niraq, far to the east… or west if you go far enough. That was the home of the Lion Kingdom, and before them was the feared Elephant Empire. It was only after the Elephants collapsed that humans could even sail near the place. About the time that the lions died out the bees on Nafika died out too.

"Asigo has seen the same thing. The first domain on Asigo was under the Swan clan, but they fell apart after a few decades and then the cat clan arose, just to fall apart within a century. The Rabbits followed after that - - they were the first to willingly let humans come to Asigo - - aside from those that had been here since ancient times of course. But the rabbits collapsed too, and then the Foxes, and many people are wondering nowadays if we are about to witness the collapse of the Canine alliance between the wolves and dogs."

Kagome sat there speechless. In all of her investigations at the Great Library she hadn't read anything about this… but wait, what about those census records she had looked over? Now that she was thinking about it, there were massive jumps in human population during each of those periods, but she hadn't had any explanation for it before so she had just let the matter stay in the corner of historical mysteries.

Thunder ripped through the room making its inhabitants jump. Most started chuckling nervously after, but Kagome glanced outside, catching sight of a lightning strike turn a hill red and black. It didn't help that rain was starting to fall, and with the light of Meka shining through the scarlet clouds it seemed like the sky was bleeding.

With the history lesson done, Kaede continued her interview with Shippo. Kagome wasn't really sure what were good answers and what were not, but after a half hour Kaede closed her pen into the book she'd been scribbling in, removed her reading glasses, and smiled. "Well little one, ye seem like an admirable youth who we would be happy to have stay on the compound. I will have to settle some of the details with the High Mothers, but do not fret about it. Kagome, ye are entrusted to this boy's care for the next two days until we can be situated, and it is asked that none of ye speak of this matter to the press. If they discover we are housing a demon… I mean not to worry ye, Shippo, but the human's fear of demons often manifests in bigotry and hatred, especially against those with demon blood who are too young to defend themselves. For the time being, this arrangement will have to be secret."

Kagome nodded firmly. It hadn't crossed her mind that the upper echelons of the Mother's religion were going to need to be convinced to welcome a young demon boy into their midst: There was an orphanage and a homeless shelter attached to the compound on either side after all. But what Kaede mentioned about how fear manifested in some people plucked one of Kagome's heartstrings. She didn't know why, but something inside her told her to remember that idea for later.

Kaede stood and showed the three out to the main entrance way. After ten minutes of waiting for the rain to at least weaken to no avail, Kaede shuffled over to Kagome. "A word," she whispered.

Kagome nodded and asked Sango to entertain Shippo for a little bit. As she walked away following the old woman, Kagome heard Sango start a game called "Where are you from?" where she and Shippo exchanged stories about weird things from their homelands.

"Is there going to be a problem getting him a room here?" Kagome asked after the woman. Kaede flapped her hand to stop, turning around once they were standing in a corner where the crashing rain out yelled any normal speech volume.

"That is not a problem Kagome, it is fine - - I will house the boy in my chambers if I must. This is about something different," She rasped. Kagome waited for a few moments expectantly. "I received information from the detective working on the Lucknow case, and they found him the morning."

Kagome almost gulped, but pushed the urge down and steeled herself instead. "Okay. Does he need me to act as a witness or something to press charges?"

"No Kagome, the boy is dead," Kaede replied.

Kagome's jaw dropped, then hardened when Kagura's words rang through her ears. '_He won't be troubling you again…'_

"…pulled out of a pond in a suburb of Aplorchard a few hours ago. Kagome… it was horrific. Someone slashed open his chest and emptied his body from the inside out. Ye mentioned that you found Shippo a few days ago after being attacked yourself by the Ambassador of the Yokai Republic. What did she want to meet about?"

How… how could she respond? Kagome pressed her hand over her forehead and then her eyes, trying to keep her imagination from picturing what was just described. She looked over her shoulder to Shippo and Sango: they started giggling over the word 'gator'.

"She…she told me that Erris Lucknow wouldn't be bothering me anymore," Kagome replied.

"Yes, I gathered that, but what else did she say?" Kaede asked.

Kagome blinked, then stared. "…You mean you knew Kagura went after that guy!? Why didn't you say anything to the investigators!?"

Kaede held her hands up. "I knew nothing, but I suspected. Now what information was shared?"

Kagome covered her mouth and bent over slightly. Kaede had _suspected_ that the man who tried to rape her had been brutally murdered!? And by the representative of a foreign country!? What the hell?! What the HELL!? She sidestepped so she could lean against the wall, steadying her swirling mind that now had to try to keep memories from that car from taking over.

"I was… she… she sent Shippo after me, trying to get me so she could talk to me alone," She said, and looked up to see Kaede's eye harden on the kit. "No! Wait, wait, he had no idea what was happening - - he was the messenger of the messenger of the messenger. Her boss told her to do this, and she told her men to get me, and they found a local kid to find me. He was promised money, and considering his father hasn't been heard of in five months I'm not surprised he took it. Honestly he's pretty lucky to have survived."

Kaede's gaze softened but it stayed locked on the fox. "And what did she want to talk to you about?"

"She… she told me to stop looking into the origins of demons… or else… well, she already had started messing with my brother's brain, I still don't know what's wrong with him…"

"Mm… the Prince informed me of that last part," Kaede murmured.

"…Did he tell you all of the rest of what I've said as well?" Kagome bit back. This drew Kaede's attention.

"He mentioned much of what you have said," She admitted.

Kagome's shoulder's slunk. "So you're comparing our stories to see if they corroborate?"

"Yes. My behavior does not look trusting or considerate, of that I am aware," Kaede said. "But there are things in motion right now that are not trusting or considerate either, so I must match the fire they produce with the same variety if I am to stay ahead of whatever they plan."

Another strike of lightning and thunder, and suddenly Kagome was back on the streets. She was running with bleeding feet, wondering if the car was coming back for her. Another moment and she was in the car, getting hit by the mountain of muscle that was now dead. Her mind imagined the bloody carcass of a body being pulled from a foggy, algae laden pond, missing an eye from a fight he didn't die from. If he had had both eyes would he have been able to see Kagura coming? Or was it Kagura's henchmen? Her mind raced to a sobbing mother and father over a picture of their flawed son, and when Kaede's voice reached through to her Kagome found herself crying as well.

"There we go…," The voice of a familiar daughter of water rang above her. Kagome's eyes opened and there was her wet therapist sitting above her, with Kaede, Sango, and several other daughters nearby. How much time had just passed? "List off where you are, Kagome," Her therapist said.

"I… I am…"—the flashes of the corpse, her father smacking her, turned into Erris's strike, the two flipping between each other like flicking television channels, a crying fox in a storm- -"I… I- I…"

For a second all of the faces above her turned gray and empty like those of her dream. Their hands reached down to her – death! She screamed, but a second later her eyes opened. She saw one of her arms slam into the floor, but it didn't sting. Such loud voices, noises. Her heart was pounding in her eyes, her throat grasping at her tongue—

"Three plus three, Kagome," She heard. A few moments she saw it in her head: a three, a plus sign, and a three. Her brain popped out a six, which she said.

"Good. What is six multiplied by three?" She heard quickly. Her mind tried to jump back to the minotaur trying to kill her friends, but the numbers popped through again.

"Three times six is eighteen," She choked out.

"Good. What is eighteen times five?" She heard again. This time she could pick out the voice: it was Sango.

Eighteen times five? That was a new one. Kagome broke it down to ten times five plus eight times five, which was fifty plus forty, so, "Ninety."

"Great, and what is ninety divided by four?" Her friend asked, again before another memory could take over. Kagome started to feel the sting in her hand where it had slapped the ground. " Uh… eighty divided by four is twenty, so that plus eight… ninety divided by four is twenty-two with a remainder of two."

"Awesome, and the circumference of a circle if it has a radius of ten?"

Circle circumference was just pi times the diameter, and a diameter was just two radii. "Twenty pi, or - - no, wait… 3.14 times twenty is sixty plus 14% of twenty, and 10% of twenty is 2, so the circumference is about sixty-two and... I dunno, one half?"

"I like this method," she heard her daughter of water therapist say. A few people above her chuckled.

"What happened?" Shippo asked, jumping into her face. Kaede snatched the boy up and out of Kagome's reach, though she noted the unwelcome stares most of the other daughters sent towards the kit.

Kagome was brought to a bathroom by Sango, and the later helped the other lean against the wall and drink water out of a small Clarence vessel.

"I thought the PTSD was under control…," Sango said carefully, neutrally. Kagome kept her eyes closed, going through multiplication and division tables.

"I did too…" She admitted. She took another drink as thunder rumbled outside. Her mind raced back to the roar of the Lucknow car- - '_No, what is twelve times sixty five? …Whoa, how do I even begin on that? Okay, ten times sixty plus ten times five, then two times sixty plus two times five.'_

"I'm guessing you don't want me to mention this to your mom?" Sango asked.

"780," Kagome replied.

Sango stood at the faucet for a second. "What did I ask?"

"What? Oh, yeah, my mother shouldn't know…," Kagome sighed.

Sango came back to her friend's side and exhaled deeply as well. "Everything's so crazy right now… this entire planet is weird in its own right, but we got caught up in a sex ritual that left you wit ha concussion and almost getting raped or worse, then we're all almost killed when the ambassador, who, oh yeah, lost her shit a few months ago, comes back here just to threaten you to stop looking into the origins of demons. That's the part I really don't get…"

"Don't forget about Sota…" Kagome said, wrapping her arms around her sides.

"I didn't forget, its just… well, its one of the many things that's happened. I'm sorry to say this Kagome, but when you're in a war you can't stop and worry about… that kind of damage. You need to stay focused on what you are doing and what you need to achieve. What happened to your brother is terrible, don't misunderstand me, but… I think we've stumbled on something big."

"No kidding…," Kagome replied. "And Kaede know more about it than we do. I was just talking to her… Erris Lucknow is dead, and she suspected Kagura killed him long before she told me he wasn't going to be a problem."

"What?" Sango hissed. She put a hand to her forehead. "That's what triggered the panic attack wasn't it?"

Kagome shrugged. "I don't really keep track of what sets the memories off and what doesn't."

Sango brought the hand on her head down to her mouth. Her other arm crossed over her chest and she started pacing. Another boom of thunder rattled the building.

"That's what triggered…" Sango muttered to herself. A few paces later she said, "Kagura would never have known what you guys were looking into if Erris hadn't made a move on you, but why kill him? That makes no sense. And it makes no sense that she should try to kill all of us while in the process of giving you that warning…"

Kagome nodded once. Her eyes flicked up to the small, square window that was open. Rain was sloshing in every now and then, and there were black streaks where years of rain had slipped into the bathroom in a similar fashion. The passage of time…

"Wait… when we first got there, when we first came to Kagura, didn't she say something about us being late?" Kagome asked.

"Honestly I don't remember," Sango replied.

"I think she did, I really do, and - - whoa, okay, I'm going to stay leaning against the wall, not gonna try walking again - - she hinted to me that it was just her official duty to tell me to stop looking into the origins of demons, not her personal wish.

"Sango, what if we're looking at this entire situation wrong?"

"What do you mean?" Sango replied, facing her friend, now both arms crossed over her chest.

"I mean we've been getting riled up by the smaller things happening around us in our individual lives that we're not looking at the big picture," Kagome replied.

"I'm still not following."

"Okay… okay… okay let me think…," Kagome said, closing her eyes. She tried to stand up and pace too but she wobbled before falling back on the wall. "Ugh. I need Inuyasha here, and Miroku, and Kaede, and maybe even Shippo and Mama. I feel like we've all got pieces of the puzzle that will make sense if we just put them together and look at them as a union instead of as puzzle pieces…"

Kagome opened her eyes. Sango was looking at her worriedly.

"I swear I didn't hit my head again."

"You sure? 'Cause one more concussion in this short amount of time would-"

"Yeah yeah, leave me with the mental capacity of a starfish," Kagome said.

* * *

Hazel had set Sota up with a puzzle in one of the empty rooms in Sango's apartment. Kagome stared at the small wooden clock on the wall, wondering just how late a Prince and Prime mother could be.

A little before eleven there was a sharp knock on Sango's front door. Miwa Higurashi jumped and threw a hand onto Hazel's arm, who was sitting next to her now. Sango dodged around Miroku, who was exiting the bathroom, to answer her door. She looked through the peephole and then removed the dead bolts.

"Was it really necessary to bring everyone way out here?" Hazel asked when the door had shut again.

"A demonic ambassador recently attacked us and kidnapped Kagome's younger brother," Miroku said softly. "If we all met in a public place like the Igutoni embassy or the Mother's Compound, or at a soft target like the Higurashi residence, the Y.R. ambassador would be sure to know. This is a convenient, unknown location."

Hazel rolled his eyes but seemed soothed. Kagome looked over the American man, taking in the whole: creased bags under his eyes and gray hair peppered in with his natural dark blonde were characteristics she didn't recall from their first encounter on the space ship all that time ago.

Kaede huffed down into one of the cheap lounge-chairs of Sango's apartment, and Inuyasha found a standing place in one of the corners. All eyes then turned towards the Floridian.

"Before anyone start bombarding me with questions, I'm not the one who concocted this get together," She said, repeating herself in Japanese a moment later for Ms. Higurashi. "This was Kagome's idea."

"Hey, stop using demon tongue!" Shippo cried from his spot on top of the kitchen counter. "It's reserved for the… the, uh…"

A room full of the annoyed glares of adults were enough to shut up any child, demon or not.

"Okay, fine then, what is this all about Kagome?" Inuyasha directed at her. Kagome looked at him and then around the room: crossed arms seemed to be a fad.

"Actually, I'm going to direct that question back to you and the Prime Mother," Kagome responded, a little sharper then she was expecting. Raised eyebrows suddenly became a fad as well, though Miwa was a little slower to pick it up since she had to wait for a translation. "Over the last few months we all have been putting in an effort to learn about the origins of demons. For me that started because, for one, I wanted to understand what this weird new life form could be, but also because I thought it might hold some explanation about why the demon countries were so eager to get my family to come to their country.

"Over this time we've found out a lot. Hazel found out about the Musas, who were called Muslims on Earth, and how they named your home star Meka after the Mecca of their ancient traditions. Moreover, we found out that the Clarence ritual is named after a person named Clarence from hundreds of years ago, who was also called the second prophet or the new prophet or something like that. However, Inuyasha, Sango, Miroku, myself and my mother also realized that that isn't accurate. Mom, can you show them…?"

After Sango finished translating Miwa nodded. She pulled out a plastic binder packed to the brim with papers. As she flipped trough it Kagome saw Sango's eyes widen, but then return to normal size. She couldn't figure out why.

"Here," Miwa said. She opened up the binder and showed it to the people in the room. 'Project Clear Water,' was written in bold letters on top of the page. "There was no new prophet. I made Clarence. Professor of me… I think he stole my project. That was common thing in University back home. The Professor, Tachiagaku Ishihara, was first mans that went to Ibeji."

"She means he was one of the first people who accompanied my father, Takoku Higurashi, to Beji about 2,500 years ago. He was the first colonial governor of New Noto, and considering that is the oldest country on the planet and the famed home of the Silver Emperor, we've deduced that my father was the Silver Emperor and somehow had a hand in creating the Demons and the Kwis," Kagome said.

Hazel and Kaede were the only ones who hadn't been in on the loop. The first looked somewhat incredulous, but then Miwa pushed a paper Kagome and she had put together an hour before. He looked it over and his incredulity turned into a deeply furrowed brow.

Kaede looked somewhat bemused. "Kagome, my child, I do not mean to be coarse against you, but this is a very farfetched claim."

"No it isn't gas-bag," Inuyasha shot in. "The values inscribed in the Tome match the crap her father said and the way he acted. You've talked to that daughter of water - - you know what her childhood was like."

'_Hunh. So much for doctor-patient confidentiality,_' Kagome thought.

"Are you thinking of her past or of yours Prince Inuyasha?" Kaede replied. She turned back to Kagome. "I am sorry my child, but I cannot believe this."

Kagome sighed and wrung her hands together. "We didn't want to tell you this theory until we could amount more evidence to support it, but I don't know that we will ever find it. But let me go on, okay?"

Kaede smiled like one would to a poor, mistaken child who simply didn't know any better. Kagome thought she heard Inuyasha scoff, but she got back to her point.

"Okay, well, that aside, we've also found out that the Kwis and the Demons have a related origin and it had something to do with an illness the first people on Beji had to face on a regular basis. And after the ambassador of the Yokai Republic… after she attacked us and Sota… ahem, after that, it became obvious that something big is going on in the demon world, and that somehow knowing the origin of demons is very threatening to the leaders of the Y.R. So threatening that they are willing to go through sloppy murder to prevent it. And whatever they are up to is so big that there are demons who are willing to risk their lives to hint at dissent, like Kagura did to me. When there was no one around to hear she told me that her official, impersonal orders were to prevent me from looking any closer into the origins of demons, but her personal opinion was deliberately stated as not being in the same camp."

"So, the question of 'What this is all about' really comes back to you, Inuyasha, and to you Kaede. Inuyasha, as the attaché from Iguto, a member of the royal family, and a half demon you know things about the Tome of the Emprist religion, and about the political dynamics of the demon world in general. Considering there is a history of large demon states collapsing for weak or unknown reasons, I think you have a vested interest in making sure the millions of people in Iguto don't die."

"They're demons and half-breeds, not people," He chided her.

"Humans, demons, half-demons - - I don't care, they're all people on equal footing with me," Kagome rebutted. Then she turned to Kaede. "And you, Kaede, found out about the death of Erris Lucknow this morning while police investigators only officially released that information on TV a few hours ago. You also claimed to have suspected the representative of the Yokai Republic was involved even before the same woman came after Miroku and the rest of us. Given that, your place as the head of an organized religion, a former confidant of the Queen of Iguto, and the fact that you were chosen by the Athena-president person thing of Ko to convince us aliens to come and live in Ko, I suspect that you have a much deeper and broader understanding of what is going on in the world than any of the rest of us could know.

"So, you two, spill it," Kagome ordered. "Inuyasha, what reasons were you given to collect us from Prialata, and why haven't you gone back to your homeland? After you answer that I want you to explain whatever you can from the Emprist religion that can explain any of these phenomena, and if there is a creation tale I want to hear it. If you feel this is a breach of whatever privacy there is supposed to be between humans and demons… well, too bad. There are more important things to pay attention to right now than antiquated rules of secrecy."

Kagome saw Sango make a fist and mouth, "Yeah!"

"Once you do that," Kagome continued. "Kaede, I want you to tell us what the demon countries are up to and how you know about these things. I want to know what the bigger picture is here, and in order to figure that out I… no, not me, we all need to know what is going on."

Kaede seemed about to huff a protest but Inuyasha cut her off. "Kagome, you don't want to hear what we have to say. And its none of your business, so—"

"I'm living on this planet now so you'd better bet your ASS its my business! Its all of our business! Not to mention the fact that whatever is going on almost got me killed, my mother killed, all of us killed, and…," She pointed to Sota. He was holding onto a red square block and trying to put it through the circle hole of the puzzle Hazel brought for him. He had been knocking the block against the hole for several minutes now and still hadn't figured out that a square can't go into a circular hole. Inuyasha's ears flattened against his head.

"No more bull-shit or patronizing or protecting out of either of you," Kagome ordered.

The room was silent for a few moments after Sango finished translating for Ms. Higurashi. Finally Miroku said, "Inuyasha, come on, whatever it is you've been told to hide just let it be. Your brother's a prick anyway."

"…He… He didn't tell me anything," Inuyasha muttered.

"What?" Miroku asked. "I didn't hear that—"

"I said he didn't tell me anything!" Inuyasha yelled back. "He ordered me to go to Prialata to convince you guys to come back to Iguto and I asked him why and he refused to answer, all right!? I've been as in the dark about all of this as you guys - - and the reason I can't go back to Iguto is because I didn't convince you to come back of your own free will. The King… Sesshomaru decreed that I'm to be killed if I return without you guys…" Inuyasha seethed. A few moments later he let out a long stream of air. "Kaede figured this out before me. Sesshomaru is trying to secure his place on the throne by eliminating me as a threat. I was just a kid when the war broke out, and… my dad killed himself to guarantee my mom's and my safety. We hid in the Kaybek Mountains between the borders of Iguto, Sokoku, the Yokai Republic and Upper Merica - - they call it North Merica now. But… ah… the hot mama over here believes that Sesshomaru is preparing to purge the country of all the half-demons and the demons who are supporters of the old throne system."

Miroku and Shippo did a double take. "What…?" The professor breathed.

"Purge?" Shippo asked. "You mean… kill them all-"

"Yeah, kill 'em all, that's what he plans to do to prevent a popular uprising. Though the whole thing's stupid considering I'm half-demon - - - there'd be no popular movement to have a half-breed on the throne of the Dog and Wolf - - Sesshy's got nothing to worry about. My father was a fucking idiot for knocking up my—"

"Inuyasha! Have some respect!" Kaede admonished.

"Heh, respect for what? For a father who didn't think about the repercussions of what would happen when he shunned his first wife? Respect for a mother just sat there and let me get treated like shit by the wolves, or the—"

"You know perfectly well that she couldn't stand up against demons!" Kaede tried to jump in.

"Whoa, WHOA, okay, lets stay focused!" Kagome yelled. It was an ironic call on her part considering for a moment she felt as if she was watching her father yelling again. "Thank you for being so open and honest, Inuyasha… And… the Emprist stuff?"

Inuyasha pressed his lips together.

"*Don't do it, don't break the sacred vow!*" Shippo called out. Hazel shushed him.

"I…," Inuyasha began to say, but then his ears twitched and a small grin tugged at the corners of his mouth. He unfolded his arms and said. "*The Tome says that the Silver Emperor descended from heaven and touched the world, giving rise to life. He led humans into being, but he soon saw their flaws, and sought to create a perfect being. He saw that animals cared little about the gossip and pettiness of humans, so he mixed the spirits of the purest humans with the most noble of animals, and from that was the beginning of the demon family.* There are caves in Sokoku, called the Wolves' Dens, that have shrines detailing the entire story."

Shippo screamed and wailed. "NOOO! HOW COULD YOU TELL THEM! YOU'VE BROKEN THE SACRED VOW, NOW THE WRATH OF THE EMPEROR HIMSELF WILL COME DOWN…uh… will come down… wait, if the emperor was your dad Kagome, wouldn't the only thing that would come down on us would be a bunch of bones?"

"Mayb—" Kagome began, but at the exact moment a rancorous cud-dunk-lunk-lunk smashed against the roof, skittered down the side of the apartment and flew past the front window. Everyone save Kaede and Sota rushed to the window to see several long, white objects shrink and then shatter on the pavement down below.

Shippo slowly turned to look at the others around him, face white and mouth open in horror. "W-w-w-ere those b-bones!?"

Sango's quick investigation revealed them to be the support beams of an illegal Cable TV device.

"I guess that explains THAT outrageously expensive bill," Sango muttered, re-entering her apartment. Shippo was still clinging to Hazel with clenched teeth and bugged eyes. Hazel was swinging his arm to try to get the pipsqueak off him.

"…Besides, I said it in Demon Tongue, a language humans aren't supposed to know," Sango heard Inuyasha finish. "I didn't break the vow. I kept things in the realm of the silver emperor… though that might be a pretty useless thing to even consider anymore…"

"Anyhow, Kaede, what can you tell us about the movements of the demon countries?" Kagome asked.

Kaede sighed in a raspy way. "The Prince is correct, I believe his brother, and specifically his brother's mother, feels very insecure in the royal palace and is going to try to remove Inuyasha as a possibility for taking the throne. However, doing so would also provoke a response from Sokoku and the Yokai Republic…"

"Kaede, if there is more you can say then why are you holding back?" Kagome pressed.

Kaede put her fingers together. "Many of the things I know are inferred from the messages I receive from Daughters' outposts or from the devout in high positions of intelligence agencies who feel the need to inform me of the greater movements of the world. I do not feel very comfortable compromising my promises of silence."

"So be clever about it," Inuyasha said.

"I am originally a daughter of Fire, Inuyasha. Fire cannot pretend to be anything other than it is - - one must always be truthful and direct when revealing it or one mustn't reveal it at all."

"But we are already aware of the information you know," Sango replied. "We can see the smoke, so to speak. We're running up to the fire now. You can tell us how big the conflagration is or you can wait for us to barrel into it and accidently catch ourselves on fire."

Kaede made her raspy sigh again. "Fine then… Inuyasha… you say there is no one in Iguto that would support you, but the western provinces in the Wuhan Mountains, where you're father took up embattlements against your step-mother… they are in open revolt already. King Sesshomaru has tried to battle them using normal methods but it is proving to be an impossible feat. He and his mother are becoming desperate as they fear the rebels will soon make their way across the Hakin Desert and into the Royal Province. From what I've heard, they believe Sango and Kagome are sisters and want to use the Higurashi family as leverage against Ms. Taijiya in order for her to replicate and mass produce a weapon she used against a wolf demon you encountered upon first arriving on Beji."

This time all eyes turned to Sango. Her jaw had dropped but her eyes flew to the open door of her bedroom, specifically to the nightstand next to her bed and the weathered case of bullets sitting on top of it.

"Sokoku is collapsing as we speak," Kaede pressed on. "They have done a good job hiding the evidence, but there is a civil war going on between the Snow Wolves and the Forest wolves, though the latter is much more fragmented and likely to soon loose. The forest wolves are also the group that has classically held the throne during their allotted time in the United Kingdom, and their Clan Leader Koga is looking for a way to take out Sesshomaru in order make a territorial move into Iguto, obtain the resources he needs to wipe out the Snow Wolf clan, and then thoroughly do so. As to for how he plans on doing this I do not know – my contacts in the far north are few.

"My contacts in the Yokai Republic are even fewer," Kaede pressed on, refusing to give in to the gasps or gaping mouths of horror around her. "But I do have some extra information. The recently elected Prime Minister, Hitomi, is an extremist and a reformer, claiming that half demons are the harmonious and natural leading form of life and advocates complete equality between humans and demons. It sounds benign enough, but I don't trust him, especially with what I've been hearing about Y.R. incursions into Kwis territory. Two universities in the Y.R. capital, Sano Omi, have set up research camps up there, and I haven't been able to come up with a reason to explain the move.

"And if that wasn't enough, the countries Ala and Viv are militarizing in direct violation of peace accords brokered fifty years ago. But from what I've heard their troop mobilizations aren't being targeted towards each other, as in the past, but rather towards the other countries around them. With the Demons on track for a three way war in the future and the countries in the south, especially Napan, unwilling to even think about getting involved in another string of wars up here in the north, the future of the northern hemisphere of Beji does not look fair."

Kagome asked for honesty and the truth, and she got it. If only the truth weren't what it was. Inuyasha was pacing back and forth and looked like he was only barely preventing himself from punching a hole in the wall. Miroku had his hand over his eyes while Sango had slipped down to the floor, hugging her knees and hiding her chin. Hazel was the only one who seemed undaunted.

"So what are we going to do about it?" The American man said.

"Do about what?" Inuyasha replied.

Hazel stuck his hands out in the air like he was shaking a globe. "THIS. The planet seems about ready to tear itself apart and we're just going to sit here and do nothing?"

"There is nothing to do. It can't be helped," Miroku replied.

"It CAN if you guys wouldn't sit there sulking!" He shot back.

"What can a senior citizen, a bunch of kids in their twenties, a kid and a couple of middle aged people do about this?" Inuyasha shot back.

"Hey, am I one of the kids in their twenties or am I one of the middle aged guys, 'cause I'm not that old," Miroku asked.

"You're fucking middle aged," Inuyasha shot back.

"But I'm only one year older than you!"

"…like I said, you're fucking middle aged."

"That's what you'll argue about?" Sango said. Her mouth appeared from behind her knees and she used the wall to pick herself up. "You two will fight about whether you're young and sprung but you'll just sit there placidly when you hear your homeland is going to be soaked in blood? What do you think will happen to Ko, Miroku? If another demonic war comes about, do really think this country won't get caught in the cross-fire?"

"Look, you two military heads can go talk to your representative about getting a platoon or something," Inuyasha jumped in.

"WE'RE PILOTS YOU MORON!" Sango roared back.

"All of you stop! This is pointless!" Kaede pleaded. "War is one of the unfortunate aspects of life. It cannot be avoided or abated – it must be weathered and endured."

"What?! You too!?" Sango yelled.

Kagome stood there and listened. Hazel against Inuyasha, Sango against Miroku. Kaede sat and shook her head sadly as Kagome's mother held herself, completely lost in the loud English storming around her. Kagome looked at Shippo, and-

A fox. A fox crying in a storm.

- Kagome held her head. She knew that image. She'd seen it earlier today, at the compound… the fox was Paak. He hadn't contacted her in ages. What was going on in the divine level of Beji?

Her eyes focused on the storm in front of her. They disagreed with each other, but Kagome could see the validity and the meagerness of both sides. They were part of this world, and as such could always do something. After all, Margaret Mead once said that a small group of devoted people is the only thing that has ever reshaped a world. But at the same time, one had to be realistic in knowing one's abilities are limited. Like a pilot caught in a storm there are things you can do to get yourself and others to safety and survive the weather until it evens out on its own, but you can't force the storm to just not exist.

"A storm…" Kagome muttered. Positively and negatively charged particles amassed and aligned during a storm, and when their charges became to great they transferred energy to each other in the form of lightning. When cold, dry air hits warm, wet air they create low-pressure systems and storms to redistribute warmth and water.

"This storm needs lightning…," She whispered to herself. "This storm…"

And it hit her. The Americans were fighting the cultural attitudes of those with Japanese cultural origins. It was an individualist society against a communalist. And it was the same with the demons. The demons hated the kwis, and it seemed like the only people who had ever had long contact with the kwis were demons. They shared an origin, so of course—

"THAT'S IT!" Kagome screamed. No one heard her, aside from Sota. She looked over and saw that he had shoved the square block into the circular hole by putting it in corner first instead of by the side. Drool slipped out of his smile.

"LISTEN TO ME NOW ALL OF YOU!" Kagome yelled again. The humans shut up, but the half-demon was still going. Then Miwa threw a frying pan at his head and he shut the fuck up.

"Thanks mama."

"Ie, zen zen."

"Okay. One: We live in this world and we are part of it, so we CAN do something to change its course, and that includes the direction of this war. But we also have to understand that, on our own, our abilities are limited. We also don't have a lot of time. The best way to change things is to keep doing what we have been doing, which is threatening one of the major players. We scared the crap out of the Yokai Republic by researching into the origins of demons, to such an extent that they've done horrific things to us to stop us.

"But we have the answer to what we can do right in our research. We need to study the origins of the Kwis. Kaede, I'm going to need your help in smuggling me up north to one of those research camps in Kwis territory. Anyone else who wants to come with me is welcome."

* * *

_So where do you think they're going now? :P_

_I also included a throw back to my very VERY early (and bad) fan fictions on this website with the frying pan. I doubt anyone knows the connection, but if anyone does, you = awesome._

_Chapter Preview!_

_What awaits the group far to the north in the Kwis lands? Who will go, who will stay, and what clues to the "bigger picture" will come into light. Additionally, which duo will get closer together, and which will start to drift?_

_Aaaaaaaand spoilers :_

_An undead priestess this way comes._

_Also, it seems like people are interested in the idea of me doing a sex scene in the future, so I shall! ^_^_


	15. Chapter 13

_So… I got sick again. REALLY sick. I took the GRE with a fever of 101˚F, which turned into 104˚F on Saturday and Sunday. Ladies and gentlemen… I forgot to get my flu shot this year, and have paid the price. Crippling pain, ridiculous weight loss (I'm usually 127 pounds - - I lost 10 of those), and malaise… ugh. If you haven't gotten your flu shot, go get it. Most of the past week I have been in too much pain to even type. But yesterday the pain became manageable, so I got to writing for you all, as the chapter below indicates._

* * *

Chapter 13

* * *

Kagome never got to making her second point that evening, so she repeated it to Kaede and her mother later on: She had concluded that Shippo would be watched and harassed by Kagura's thugs when they found out Kagome had left the country, and the boy was going to need special protection not already available at the compound.

The yelling and cursing from that night was still ringing in her ears. "Bloodthirsty-savages," "bastards," and "fucking insane," were some of the favorites used that night (with Inuyasha preferring that last one the most). Once Ms. Higurashi had the nature of the Kwis translated to her, she said similar things. But Kagome stood there that evening, arms crossed, and announced that she would find her own way to the Kwis Lands no matter what anyone said or did. Sango backed her up, and Hazel talked down her mother, and before the evening was over Kagome's plan was being set in motion.

_ 'We are going to go up there and find out about what makes the Kwis different from the demons, and how this relates to differences between humans,'_ Kagome thought, tapping a pencil on her lip. Pine trees whizzed by her train window but not so fast for her to not see that the pine needles were tinged with mauve, similar to the red tingeing of the clouds above. '_Though I don't really know how we're going to do that…'_

Sango leaned forward on their compartment's wooden table, also looking out the window. Miroku's nose was in a book and Inuyasha seemed to be dozing.

"Something wrong Sango?" Kagome asked.

"Yeah," she replied. "We still haven't figured out why Kagura tried to _kill_ us. It makes me think there is a big, nasty part of this situation that we don't know yet."

"You mean aside from how two demonic countries are planning to genocide their own people, the leader of the Y.R. might as well be known as 'dear leader', and how two militaristic powerhouses on the other side of the planet aim to conquer that side of the planet?"

Sango gave her an irritated eyebrow lift. "Kagome, that stuff isn't even related to what Kagura pulled on us - - that's what I'm talking about. If Inuyasha hadn't been there I really think we… we would have been done for. I know Miroku and I can hold our own, but not against all of those _things_… But she just wanted to threaten you to stop looking into the origins of demons. Why do it in _that_ plaza? Why did she kidnap your brother, and then hurt him before even making the threat known to you? Why didn't she just call you in to the embassy? Why did she have her men try to kill us but then didn't even try to finish us off herself? … None of it adds up."

Kagome nodded, then shivered. She stood up and pulled down one of the blankets on the racks above their seats. While Kwis lands were so warm to be almost tropical, the rest of the ride north was, as to be expected, progressively chiller. A few hours ago they had passed through Numasi, the capital of West Merica, and were now not that far off from the border with North Merica. Considering that the Appach plateau had turned into a moderate sized mountain range on top of things, blankets were provided for passengers.

"I know, but I've tried to put it out of my mind," Kagome said. "If I think about it any harder I think I'll hurt myself. Besides, we'll learn more eventually, and when we do we can fill in the blanks."

Sango put her chin in her palms. Her elbows were on the corner of the table, propping her up. "I don't think I can do that. It's too big of a risk for me not to… you learn to see things in a different way when you go through a war. When there is something like life and death, you figure it out, and you don't stop until you get the equation right."

Kagome sat back but nodded. Her personal history wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as what Sango probably had faced. It struck Kagome that she didn't actually know what that was, so she asked. "I mean, only if you're okay telling me."

"And me," Miroku said, flipping a page in his book. "I'm eavesdropping."

Sango looked at the two of them, then down at the table. She sat back too, lay her hands on her lap, closed her eyes, and took in a deep breath of air.

"I'm pretty sure you guys know that my family is not… was not very well off. Part of that has to do with the struggles any immigrant family has trying to put down a good foundation for their next generation. But it also had to do with Florida… my home state was one of the hardest hit by the 'War for the American Spirit' as some people called it. There were a lot of names; pretty much every side of that country had their own take on it. But either way, Florida's society was torn apart into so many factions that most of my childhood was spent wondering which political gang had just taken over our neighborhood. In my teens the U.S. military had settled the worst of the war in Alabama and Mississippi, so they sent a small force to Florida and it was like day and night. Without that force everyone was trying to eat each other's organs but with them it was like life as usual. Though, it probably helped that the sea walls were breached that year and most everythin' flooded.

"Oh, I'm supposed to be… the military, right, right. I signed up with the air force after I graduated high school, and I think I might be the first woman to advance in ranks so quickly, to Flight lieutenant," She said with a light laugh, but it quickly turned stale. "Or I might have been anyway. But moving right along, I volunteered my squadron fighters; we were the 706th, the Cajuns… that was kinda funny; for the special U.N. military envoy for the Second War of the Pacific."

"That was the war in the 2030's between Peru, Bolivia, and Chile, right?" Kagome asked.

"Uh, what's a Kay-jun?" Miroku asked.

"Yes, and a person from southern Louisiana who usually speaks French," Sango replied. Kagome nodded but Miroku looked even more confused than before.

"So… that's where I had my combat experience," Sango replied.

Kagome and Miroku looked at each other, then back to Sango.

"What?" The Lieutenant asked.

"That's it? Nothing else?" Miroku put back.

Sango shifted in her seat and stuck her lips out in thought, glancing out the window again. She started smiling. "There were a lot of pine trees in southern Chile, kinda like these but a little different. Most of the forests there had dried up, and… well, really the whole area had become a desert. Kagome I know you know this, but Miroku… here, let me draw you out a map of what our world looked like… . … . … there, that's about right," She said, laying her pencil down next to the piece of Miroku's book she ripped out. It was just something he was supposed to be reviewing, so he'd said it was fine.

"Wow, that's really good," Kagome said.

"Thanks," Sango replied. "Okay, you see this funny looking continent in the bottom left? It's called South America."

Miroku blinked. "A-merica? Merica? America?!"

"I think he's catching on," Kagome lolled.

"One would hope," Sango replied, giving the professor a kind pat on the shoulder. She turned down to the sheet to write out the names of different countries on Beji and their counterparts on Earth, drawing little arrows to where they were from. Only Kagome and Miroku noted that that was the kindest way Sango had ever hit him.

"The Mericas are based off of this big country called the United States of America. I'm from there… this little sliver is called Florida. Japan is way over here. That's where Kagome's from, and that's where the name Napan came from. But back to the main point:

"Down here in South America there is a country called Chile. It is long and thin, with a desert in the north, a Mediterranean zone in the middle, and rain-forest of pine trees in the south. Or, rather, it was for a long time, but people on Earth polluted the atmosphere so much that they changed the air, and all of the world's climates changed. Storms became more violent and more common, deserts grew like mold, and the colder climates vanished for the most part. When I was in the Peace-Bringing Group for the Second War of the Pacific, almost all of Chile was a desert. Several parts of Bolivia and Peru, these two countries here, they had similar problems but they were also hit with horrific storms, so they had plenty of water."

Miroku scoffed. "C'mon, there's all that water on the coast of Chile," he said. "The Pacific Ocean. Were people really so stupid there that they wouldn't drink the water that was right in front of them? I mean all they had to do was the Clarence and then—"

"Hey smartie-pants," Kagome interrupted. "Our planet was different than this one. First off, most people didn't have a ritual associated with using water. You just drank it, but you could only drink the water from rivers and lakes. Our oceans were filled with salt and other minerals. If you drank water from an ocean you would wind up dehydrating yourself and likely die within a few hours."

Miroku gulped and looked back at the map. "That planet sounds peculiarly deadly."

Sango laughed. "Not really… Miroku, calm down, the water wasn't poisonous, just too salty for humans. There were tons of things that could survive in oceans: fish of every color and shape and size,"

"Corals!" Kagome said. "They're kind of like a cross between an animal and a plant that live on rocks, but they are incredibly beautiful."

"And when they die they become rocks," Sango said. Miroku looked at the two of them aghast. "Not to mention eels and squid and octopi,"

"What are those?" He asked.

She drew them.

"Sango you are a very good artist," Kagome said. "Those look like the real things."

"They look like monsters from a nightmare," Miroku replied.

"Oh no no no, _sharks_ are the monsters," Kagome replied.

"Uh, wasn't I talking about my history in the military?" Sango shot in.

Kagome nodded and leaned back, as did Miroku, but not before he said, "Your home planet sounds like the product of a science fiction author whose been drinking Kamae juice while licking a Dovdrilyk."

Sango and Kagome looked at each other before looking back to Miroku. Inuyasha let out a snore.

"Moving right along. In the early part of the twenty first century Chile had a strong economy and, kinda stupidly, were putting the majority of their earnings into developing their military. By 2030 Chile's society and economy were both falling to pieces, and when the military took over in a coup most of the country fought back against them. But that didn't stop the Chilean military from invading Peru and Bolivia trying to get access to their reserves of fresh water. The United Nations… uh Kagome, mind explaining what that was?"

"Sure. But quick question: how do you know so much about that part of Earth? I mean, I know you fought there, but I didn't think that anyone would get this level of analysis from the U.S. Air Force of all places," Kagome said.

"When I heard about the massacres, I volunteered straight away, and when I realized I had no idea about why the war was happening I decided to do intensive research until I understood." Sango replied.

"I guess we're all alike in that way," Kagome said with a smile. "Except for this one." She jutted her finger at Inuyasha.

"Hey, he can look into things deeply, its just… he doesn't do it on a regular basis," Miroku replied. They all chuckled a bit before Kagome gave her explanation.

"Okay… the U.N. … how to explain the U.N. … well, it was a body made up of representatives from every country in the world. The idea was set up after two huge wars, called World Wars, that killed millions of people. The U.N. was created so countries could settle their differences with diplomacy instead of war."

"Millions…?" Miroku asked to the air. He rubbed his wrists while staring at the ripped paper with the map of Earth. "Millions… millions of people died, but you all still fought wars. It sounds like this U.N. thing failed."

"Woah, the U.N. was only as strong as what its member countries wanted it to be," Kagome shot back. "There was a committee in the U.N. called the Security Council, made up of the most powerful countries on the planet. Sango, when we left it was the U.S., India, China, Brazil, and the European Union, right? Yeah, yeah it was, and it took FOREVER to reform just who was ON the council. If a war broke out in the world, the Security Council was supposed to act as a united front to bring it to an immediate end, but each of those huge countries just used their powerful position to protect their interests. All they had to do was veto a bill to end a war and they could stop the world from saving people. The U.N. itself was flawed, but that was because its members abused it and kept it weak for their own benefit."

"You going to be okay Kagome?" Sango asked her reddened friend.

"Gimme a minute. That's something I feel passionate about," Kagome replied.

"My turn then," Sango said. "My battalion volunteered for a U.N. group to go down to South America and stop the war - - that was one of the times that the United Nations DID stop a war, and it wasn't the only time Miroku. This little peninsula here is Korea, and the U.N. stopped a war there too, and did a lot of other great things in the world.

"And I'm glad they did. The fighting over the desert in Chile was terrifying, and the Chilean pilots were all men… the reports I heard were that they were instructed by their commanding officers to rape any opposing combatant they could capture, be they from Peru, Bolivia, or the U.N., male or female. That made it easier to shoot them down eventually because they were distracted when fighting and wouldn't always go for a kill shot, but knowing that THAT was the reason why they were there…"

Sango cut herself off. Kagome, calmed, reached across the table. "Sango?... Would you like to stop?"

Sango was quiet, for several moments that became a few minutes.

"We'll change the topic," Miroku said kindly, picking up his book.

"No," Sango replied forcefully. Her eyes shot straight up to Kagome. "No… I don't want to hide… I want at least someone to know this. They wouldn't…," She was shaking, but she grabbed onto the table vigorously. "I don't… I…,"

Another snore from Inuyasha. All three looked at him, but only Sango glared, before turning their attention back to the little map on the table.

"I… when I w-was flying… there was a city in Chile called Arica. It was the northernmost city in Chile, about 100,000 people. I think it was a rebel strong-hold, based on the high indigenous population there… I had been sent out to engage with a battalion heading towards Peruvian air space, but they were bombing it. The air-force from Santiago was bombing Arica, and there were soldiers… they were killing everything… I was flying over an elementary school, and they were cutting up kids while they were at recess…,"

Kagome covered her eyes and mouth, taking a deep breath.

"What's a recess?" Miroku asked.

Sango fidgeted in her seat, looking away from the map. "A break from classes when children are allowed to play."

Miroku let out a long breath of air too. The cabin slipped into silence, aside from the rhythmic cracks of train against track.

"Men," Sango eventually said. Miroku and Kagome looked to her. "Men… took over Chile and tried to destroy it from the inside. They ordered other men to rape or kill anything that moved, even children. Men from a culture where women were little more than property, and the more I see of the world… and the universe I guess, the more of this trend I see. Men blaming women for their own lecherous activities, men who usurp their younger siblings for power, men who—"

"Wait, that last one," Miroku interrupted. "You were talking about Inuyasha and King Sesshomaru, right?"

"…yes," Sango replied sadly.

"…I… I was one of the orphaned children at the Mother's compound during the civil war, when Queen Izayoi was removed from the country during the war. I later returned with Prime Mother Kaede as 'advisors' to Inuyasha when he was finally allowed back, and stayed there for a few years until Inutaisho killed himself and Izayoi fled to the Kaybek mountains. The orchestrator of the coup wasn't Sesshomaru. It was his mother," Miroku confessed.

"But it was a man who still went through with the plan," Sango said bitterly.

"This is why you don't trust men," Kagome said softly. Her friend turned to her, little more than indifferent. "This is why you haven't dated since you went into the military, this is why you snapped at me months ago when we were leaving Prialata."

Sango sighed and shrugged.

"Sango… Miroku is right, Inuyasha's step-mother instigated the civil war to acquire more - -,"

"Then why isn't _she_ on the throne?" Sango snapped back. "Oh yeah, because only the second born _son_ can sit on the throne- -,"

"No, there have been many Queens of the Two Kingdoms," Miroku replied. Sango scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"And what about the queens of the Foxes? There were many women then who- -," Kagome began to say.

"THERE WAS NEVER A FEMALE PRESIDENT!" Sango screamed back. Kagome and Miroku jumped while Inuyasha shook himself awake, hit the screen door, and fell out into the hall. "THERE WAS A BLACK PRESIDENT AND A LATINO PRESIDENT AND AN INDIAN PRESIDENT AND A JEWISH PRESIDENT BUT THERE WAS NEVER A FEMALE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.A.! …Not a single man cared. Not one. Not one man didn't cheat on me. Men have caused all the problems – I mean they _caused_ all of the problems in human history, on Earth and Beji."

"Sango…," Kagome said, raising her hands gently. "Was your father like that?"

She was quiet for a moment, long enough for Inuyasha to pick himself up and step back into the compartment. "Yes. He couldn't-"

"Your brother?"

"…you _dare_ to bring Kohaku into this?!"

"Association," Miroku said. All three looked at him. "Association is when someone goes through great trauma and they unconsciously create a symbol for that trauma. It can trigger their feelings, be they of pain, sadness, confusion, or fear, or all of them. The more that trigger gets activated, the worse the reaction becomes…," stares from around the room prompted an explanation. "The Daughters of Water are very closely tied to psychologists in Polis… they're pretty much the same thing, and they work with the orphans they take in… most children didn't become orphans in a painless way, and I was… I helped them, the Daughters, when I was in High School."

"How convenient, a man can say that I'm crazy in order to—" Sango began to say, but Miroku shook his head and interjected;

"There's no such thing as crazy, just miswiring or missing wiring in a brain, and the smarter someone is the more likely trauma will mess with their mind. I don't think you're crazy-,"

" I do," Inuyasha said. Miroku chucked his book at the hanyou, who impaled it on a finger talon.

"-You're just… hurting and can't figure out how to make it stop," Miroku finished.

The compartment was once again quiet. Sango stared down at the map, but then over to the book Inuyasha had pulled off his finger. The title read _Equality of All People: A Treatise._ He was staring at it too. Kagome rubbed the iron-scar on her ribs beneath her blanket, while Miroku was massaging his wrists again. Sango reached forward, picked up the map, and wadded it up. She huffed and tossed the thing back onto the table.

"Maybe we all are," Kagome said. She opened her mouth to say more, but nothing came, so she closed it again.

* * *

Daylight was fading at an hour Kagome would usually be brushing her teeth before bed. '_That's one of the things that comes with going far north in the summertime; long days, short nights,'_ She thought. She had been wandering the halls of the train for about an hour now, contemplating. At first she was thinking about Sango's altercation, but then she had been thinking about Inuyasha's past, her own history, and wondering what Miroku's childhood must have been like.

"No wonder he's a lecher, he never saw any men to show him how to be a good man," she said aloud, remembering her conclusion on the professor. She had started thinking about the horror stories people had told her about the Kwis when she bumped into Sango.

"Oh, sorry, didn't see you," Kagome said.

Sango's eyes were wide for a moment, but then she smiled softly. Kagome noticed how they were red around the edges. '_Red around the edges… like the trees and the clouds… like they all have been crying recently._'

"Kagome… can we walk and talk for a bit?"

Kagome nodded. She stuck her hands into her pockets, put her good foot forward and continued down the dark-stained wooden hallway.

It took a bit for Sango to finally speak, but when she did she said, "I didn't think… or maybe I didn't want to think, I don't know… that I would have a… a _problem_ from the war. I've always been the one my family or my regiment can rely on, and…"

"If you're trying to apologize for hurting you don't have to," Kagome said.

Sango's face scrunched up. "No, that's not it, it's just… I saw myself. Back in the compartment, when the professor was talking about Associations… it all suddenly clicked. It was like I could see myself back in my plane, I was looking down at the radar, I saw I had a guy on my tail, and that was when I looked up and saw the school, and then… I made the connection, I think. Between men and all the pain in the world. The more I think about this the more I think it's true… I think I really made that association, and I'm seeing the world in such a new way… how do I make it go away?"

"The association?" Kagome guessed. Sango nodded. "Hm… well, if Associations are anything like any other mental maladies I've studied or lived with, I'd say that the fact that you are aware of it now and believe it did the big damage to it. Now its just a matter of physically reminding yourself that not all men are evil repeatedly until that becomes subconscious, but… I also suspect it'll never fully go away."

"…I was afraid you were going to say that…," Sango said, opening a door to another train car but coming face to face with Miroku. He blinked once, but then gave a wary smile. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, doctor," Sango said, stepping aside to let him through.

"I was actually looking for you two. Inuyasha had a great idea to pass the time, and he's in the caboose waiting for us."

The girls looked at each other, shrugged, and followed Miroku to the caboose. The end car was finished in the same deep-red finish as the rest of the train's interior, and had a red carpet inlayed with a yellow and green geometrical design. It was mostly empty except for a smattering of small tables, chairs, and a bar in the near corner. Large windows at the back and on the sides of the car let in the honey light of delayed sunset.

"Yeah, Miroku, over here!" Inuyasha called from one of the small tables in the far corner. There was an elderly couple at another table farther away, but aside from them and the bar-keep the caboose was empty.

"What's all this?" Kagome asked, coming over to the table curiously. There was a pinewood tray with several small glasses on it.

Inuyasha looked up at her with a lop-sided smile. "Alcohol! What better way to help everyone relax?"

Sango and Miroku laughed, two sounds Kagome wasn't expecting. But the thing she really wasn't expecting was that she wanted a camera. It was that smile… how could it end? That wasn't fair. That smirk of a smile, the curve of his lips… Inuyasha hadn't been obviously lovely to her before, but this was clear. When he smiled like that, full, making crow's feet along his eyes the smile was so big… it made her want to stop the world so she could soak this boy in as much as she could.

Sango and Miroku were already sitting, across from each other. Kagome shook herself slightly before quickly drawing up her seat. She glanced up at Inuyasha, who was staring down at the drinks he was pouring, smiling, and chatting with Miroku. Had she ever seen him this happy? She had caught him in moments of softness, moments without a scowl, but this…

The ground beneath Kagome's heart melted. Her heart slipped down out of her chest, bounced on the table, and landed in Inuyasha's hands. Not really, of course, but she couldn't deny it; somehow… so many words flowed into her to explain how much she wanted his life to be wonderful, but not a single one or a string of them could fully explain it.

"That's a weird name," Inuyasha's voice blurted out. Once again Kagome was snapped back into reality. '_Note to self, don't stare off into space or the boy's pretty eyes,_'

"Hey, you asked me for a drinking game from Earth, and I provided," Sango said, putting a glass in front of her.

"What are we playing?" Kagome asked.

"Never Have I Ever," Sango said. "You know a lot about stuff, Kagome, but something tells me you don't know this…"

"Ah, well, heh, I've never drunk anything before, so… I don't know it," Kagome replied sheepishly. Miroku let out a whoop and ordered a few extra bottles of liqueurs and spirits Kagome had never heard of. He passed her different drinks to smell as Sango explained the rules of the game.

"Okay, so, you hold out your hands so each finger is showing. One person starts and they say something like… 'never have I ever dressed up as a banana.' If anyone in the group has dressed up like a banana you take a drink and put a finger down. When you run out of fingers you have to down your drink and you're out."

"Sounds sweet," Inuyasha said.

"Miroku, why am I smelling these drinks?"

"Most of flavor is aroma, and if you like the smell of something then you'll probably like a drink mixed with that," he said.

"But they all smell the same, like alcohol."

"Uh… alcohol doesn't have a smell," Miroku replied.

"Yes it does!" Sango interjected.

"Yes it does!" Inuyasha said as well. Miroku threw up his hands in admittance.

"Okay, okay, maybe alcohol has a smell on its own. Either way, pick one of these and we'll have the bartender make you something."

"Hm…" Sango picked up the bottles and looked at the front of each. "I don't recognize most of these… not that surprising, of course… oh wait, is this…?" She pressed her finger into the dark liquid in a green bottle and tasted it. "It is! Kagome, have this!"

"What is it?"

"Plum and rice wine. It has a savory, slightly sweet flavor and not a lot of bite - - it's a great first drink to have."

Having no idea whether this was the truth or not, Kagome shrugged an "Uh, okay I guess," and a moment later she had a glass of the dark rose liquid. As Sango ran through the rules again once more for the boys, Kagome took a sip. Yup, there was definitely alcohol in there - - it stung and stank on her tongue. But a moment later she tasted plums… just like those that her grandfather pickled in spring and served as desert in the Tokyo winters. Flashes of cold sunsets sitting under the holy tree at the shrine, chewing on fermented plums swept her mind's eye for a moment. Wetness swelled around Kagome's eyes, but she wasn't about to let herself cry. People were trying to have a good time after all. She sat the drink down, knowing that there were some things on this new planet that triggered sweet memories.

"Okay, since I know the game, I'll start," Sango said. With her hands open, she stared skywards in thought, beautifully lit by the golden sunset outside. "Never have I ever… kissed a girl."

"So I drink if I've kissed a girl, right?" Miroku asked, and Sango nodded. He put down one of his fingers, took a swig of his drink, and smiled. Sango and Kagome waited for Inuyasha to do so as well, but his hands stayed firmly open.

"You've never kissed anybody?" Kagome asked him incredulously.

Inuyasha's ears pressed down against his head. "This game sucks already."

"Everyone's got things they're embarrassed about - - it all comes out during Never Have I Ever. It's your turn too, actually."

"Ah, all right then," Inuyasha said, leaning back in his chair and looking at the ceiling like Sango had.

'_Oh… why do you have to be so cute when you do that?_' Kagome thought to herself, but a moment later she shook herself again. '_Kagome, get a grip. Hear me? A grip. Get it._'

"Never have I ever…" Inuyasha began, smirking in the way that was sending blush up to Kagome's face. "… been a girl."

"Well that's a relief," Miroku said.

"Buh, dick move, Inuyasha, dick move," Sango replied. She put one finger down and swigged her drink, using her other hand to push Kagome's glass to her hand. Kagome started, took the glass, and took a drink.

'_I maaaaay have swallowed too much that time,'_ Kagome thought, taking her painful gulp of alcohol. Immediately the edges of objects in her vision blurred and her head felt a little heavier. Or was it lighter? Hard to tell. Either way, smaller sips, smaller sips.

"My turn," Miroku said. "Okay, never have I ever kissed a guy."

"Jerk," Kagome muttered, taking a drink as Sango did, only to catch Inuyasha trying to take a quick swig of his drink.

"WHAT!?" Sango yelled. "You're gay!?"

"NO!" Inuyasha yelled. "I didn't know it was a boy! She – uh, he, it - - it was, it - - Miroku you're a fucking bastard!"

Miroku took Inuyasha's punch to his arm with a wince and a laugh. "Yeah, I am. He was like… I don't know, nine years old? We were in the Kaybek Mountain village, I was leaving the next day, and he was so proud of himself… he came up to me and proudly stated he'd given his first kiss that day to Willm, a little local kid who was about six years old and had had a huge crush on him forever… but somehow Inuyasha had forgotten to ask whether Willm was a girl or a boy!"

"Shut the fuck up," Inuyasha hissed, but Sango and Miroku had burst out laughing. Even Kagome was smiling with mirth… after almost having a heart attack at the possibility that Inuyasha was gay. She hadn't thought of that possibility. Glad it wasn't a possibility.

"Okay, so, my turn…," Kagome muttered. "Well, since we're on the theme of risqué topics… never have I ever had sex."

"Pshh, knew it already," Miroku said, taking a large swig from his drink. Sango took a drink too, though not as boldly. Inuyasha's drink remained on the table. "Really?" He asked. "I'd thought that you…"

Kagome raised an eyebrow. "That I what? Slept around? Oh wait, does attempted rape count?"

"No, doesn't count," Sango said.

"_NO_ - - no, not no on the attempted rape," Inuyasha stammered. Poor boy was stumbling all over himself. "I just figured that y-y-you… well, that you've had a lot of boyfriends."

Kagome gave a burst of laughter. "Wha- me? My first kiss came on my last day on Earth… the Japanese people weren't exactly known for being romantically bold. Besides, I don't have the looks of someone to have a lot of boyfriends - - I'll be lucky to get just one."

"But you do have the looks…" Inuyasha said in honest dumbfoundment. Kagome raised an eyebrow.

"No, seriously Kagome, you're very pretty," Miroku added. Kagome frowned and looked over to Sango, who was nodding. Kagome pressed her lips together and looked down at her drink, leaning back into her chair. "Hunh… well for the record I've always thought all three of you guys are gorgeous."

Miroku laughed, and Sango reached out and took Kagome's hand with a smile. "We're all beautiful, Kags, but that was really sweet of you."

"We're all also pretty messed up," Inuyasha added. Contrary to what Kagome expected, the others laughed and nodded their heads. Except Inuyasha. His eyes were stuck on her. She looked away once, but then back, and he was still staring. He wasn't frowning, but he wasn't smiling. His face was open, waiting.

"Well… there is beauty in everything," Kagome replied.

He smiled, his eyes directly on hers. He made her heart so wonderfully quiet with that toothy smile. The fangs were a bit weird but they made him _him_ after all.

"I second that," Sango said, raising her glass up. Miroku raised his too, and said:

"Hey, I propose a toast. To everything that is messed up and beautiful."

Sango smiled and repeated it, keeping her glass up. Inuyasha broke his stare to grab his drink, which looked like it was a little difficult to seize for his tipsy self, and raised it. Kagome followed suit, and the two of them said in unison, "To everything that's messed up and beautiful!"

The old couple called out the same thing. The four looked over to them, smiling in their corner of the world in agreement. The bartender had a drink too, and had it raised. The seven of them drank to the notion, and then Sango invited the old couple into their game, which they agreed to heartedly.

"Never have I ever fallen in love," Sango said next.

The couple cooed over her and said that love comes its own weird way and at its own pace, and Miroku swirled his drink before taking a sip. Kagome noted that Inuyasha's drink didn't move, like Sango's. A few hours ago, her own wouldn't have either. But now… now that Inuyasha was happy, so beautifully flawed… Kagome smiled quietly to herself as she took a drink and pushed down another finger.

* * *

_This chapter was not at all intended. I originally planned to bring everyone's least favorite, undead priestess into this chapter, bring us to the Kwis lands, and get a move along with the main plot, but I decided that the characters have had it rough lately and needed a reprieve. It also sets the stage of some of the social things to come._

_Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Same Love feat. Mary Lambert_

_Listen to that song. Especially when you are listening to the second half of this chapter. It was written to the song._

_Chapter Preview:_

_The group meets the mysterious and entrancing head of the Y.R. research group, Kikyo, who has set out to look into the differences between humans and the Kwis. But will members of the group EVER get to actually meet them? Moreover, Sango and Miroku continue to open up, about themselves and to each other. Will the professor's lecherous ways catch up to him? Stay tuned._

_And again, dear reader, you are awesome. Awesomesauce= you. If you comment my day becomes spectacular. Hear that? Spectacular. Life fireworks._

**_Be the firework._**


	16. Chapter 14

Reasons why this chapter took so long to get out:

1: I had to construct a language – Kwis language – for this and oncoming chapters. Yes, it actually functions with its own grammar, lexis, etc. Am I crazy intense? Oh yes.

2: This chapter was originally twice as long as what we've got here, but I decided to cut it in half to get it out sooner. The other half will be chapter 15. (I just keep adding more and more chapters to this story… egads will I ever finish it?)

3: Turns out I didn't have the flu. I have mononucleosis and sinusitis. For about two weeks there the most I could do was crawl to the shower to rinse off the sweat and then crawl back to bed. I've lost even more weight. As a stupidly skinny person already, THIS IS NOT GOOD.

4: Grad school applications, personalized winter holiday gifts made for friends, etc… I have too many projects. I need to stop doing this to myself.

But anyway, here it is! Chapter 15 will – with luck – soon follow!

* * *

Chapter 14

"Remind me again how we got up here without being on the Yokai Republic's official records?" Sango asked, clasping a hand over her ear as the parked train whistled behind them. "Gah… hangovers are evil…"

"The Prime Mother and I pulled some strings," Miroku replied, heaving a satchel over his shoulder and grabbing a smaller, metal case. "Did you guys check your passports?"

Kagome and Sango looked at each other before reaching for their booklets. They saw the items to be black with silver lines on the front.

"…How are these supposed to be special?" Kagome responded.

"Inuyasha, show them yours," Miroku said. The white haired hanyo pulled out his passport, a small yellow booklet with several silver lines and a hatch mark on the front. Miroku turned back to the girls smiling.

"Okay, they have different claw marks on the front…" Sango said.

"…It's a code," Kagome jutted in. She held up her passport to Inuyasha's. "The vertical lines… refer to the syllables in the name, and the length of the line refers to a specific sound: see, look, all three lines here have the same little squiggle at the end, but there is only one line like that on the Igutoni passport… and I'm guessing that this passport uses the full name of Iguto, not the shortened form…"

Sango and Miroku looked at each other, then to Inuyasha, whose eyes were just as large theirs.

"…right?" Kagome asked.

"Uh, yeah," Miroku said. "Each line is a syllibary. The alphabets around the world don't match up, so twenty years ago the world's bureaucracies came together and made the passport code. You guys have the same kind of passport as me, Napanese. According to official records you guys are some of the aliens that went to Napan after your lovely stay in Prialata."

A train whistle startled them onwards to the front of the station. Miroku began unbuttoning his shirt and fanning himself in the strangely tropical heat, but he hissed and stopped himself.

"Hey, you okay?" Kagome asked, catching up to him.

"Yeah, just really warm," he replied. He adjusted one of the smaller bags over his shoulder and pressed on.

"So… do you know where we're going?" She pressed.

"To the front of the station. There should be someone holding a sign that says 'Napanese Research Group 3'."

"Okay… Sorry to knock you like this Miroku," Kagome began. "But I think there is a flaw in your cover-up plan, and his name is Inuyasha, the white haired one who stands out in a crowd like a blazing penis statue."

Miroku snapped his head over to Kagome bewildered but amused. "…a blazing penis statue?"

"What?"

"That's… sorry to knock _you_ Kagome, but that string of words is not one I'd expect from you."

Kagome rolled her eyes but she smiled. "Focus, professor."

"Inuyasha is an ambassador and attaché: It is normal for him to make international visits. He's been going to Sokoku and a few other places over the last few months as requested, and no one is going to be suspicious of said ambassador making an extended inquiry into a politicized region."

"Ah…" Kagome replied. She hadn't even noticed when he had been gone. They all had been studying at the Great Library when ever they could, which for Kagome had been every day. But it had never occurred to her that the work that would on occasion keep Inuyasha away might be outside Ko.

"One more thing," Kagome said, keeping her voice low as they joined the small pack of people leaving the train. "I think we need a code phrase or word to indicate when we are looking into or have found something that has to do with demonic origins."

Miroku nodded. "Yes, but I think it shouldn't just be a code word. It should be a phrase or word that we can use every now and then in everyday speech, but… yes. But using it out of context would be the hint to others that we're on to something."

"Uh… okay. Could you elaborate?" Kagome asked. Sango scooted over to the two and asked what was transpiring, so Kagome filled her in.

"Well… think about last night with the plum wine. Let's say we were having a conversation with other people, and I asked you if you remembered when we were on the train and I drank so much plum wine… well, I didn't touch that stuff. You guzzled it own - - you're quite a drinker for a beginner, by the way. But that's an example of putting the phrase out of context."

"Seems easy enough," Sango whispered.

"Yeah, but now I'm only going to remember plum wine and won't remember whatever we choose as the code," Kagome lamented quietly.

"Then lets just use that," Miroku replied.

"Okay, plum wine out of context is the code for when we're on to something about demonic origins." Kagome said. "I'll go tell Inuyasha,"

"He already heard you," Miroku replied, jerking his head toward the hanyo. Kagome looked up to see the ambassador's ears twitch back forward, followed by a quick nod.

'_Hm… he can hear low level conversations quite a distance away… something tells me I should try to remember that._' Kagome thought.

They found the young man holding their sign a few minutes later. Pouring their luggage into the elevated trunk, all four piled into the three-wheel car and started speeding through out of the territory of the Yokai Republic. Tracking their move on a map, Kagome noted right when they entered an 'international' zone appropriated for the Kwis, and felt it a moment later when the concrete road gave way to dirt. A few minutes later the radio gave out to static, the young man switched it off, and darted a look back at them all. "So you guys are all the way from Napan, huh?"

"Heh, sort of," Miroku replied, right as Inuyasha said a curt "No."

The driver frowned. "Uh…"

"Me and Sango here have been resettled in Napan," Kagome jumped in. "We're actually two of the aliens that landed in Prialata about five months ago."

"Ah…" the man nodded slowly, clearly still suspicious.

"That's where I met them," Miroku said. "I'm from New Noto - - you ever been there?"

"No, I've never been out of the big Y n' R," the man said. It was then that Kagome realized he had blood red eyes and pointed ears like Kagura. Apart from those two features he looked nothing like her: he had young, kind features and hunched shoulders, nothing like the ambassador's chiseled coldness or perfect stance.

"That's a shame, though I guess the Kwis lands count for something," Miroku replied.

This made the man smile. "In a way, yeah, but… heh, you guys haven't been studying the Kwis for too long, have you?"

Kagome, Miroku, and Sango, looked at each other warily. Their cover as university level researchers was not holding up well. To a Yokai Republic demon. Who had them all alone on a road in what was progressively turning into thick jungle.

"N-no, not really," Sango replied. "The program on Kwis studies at the university is quite new. We're up here to gather information to form the basis next year's curriculum, so if you can help us out in any way at all, we'd be really thankful."

"Yes, yes we would," Miroku added. He pulled out a small notebook from his pocket and flicked open a fountain pen with ink tube.

The young man smiled adolescently – clearly he didn't get a lot of opportunities to be the expert of things, and he wasn't going to pass up this opportunity. "First thing to know is that Kwis have a whole other tongue, like demon tongue. Most people never really catch on to it… assuming they keep their head long enough start learning."

Kagome couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes. Thankfully Mr. I'm-Informed-You're-Not didn't notice.

"Fascinating…" Miroku said. "Do you know anything of the Kwis language?"

The man frowned again. "Lang… Lang-what?"

Miroku audibly swallowed. "Uh, l-language, you know? A different way to talk?"

"Dr. D.Y., you've been hanging around us too long," Kagome said. "Sorry, the word "language" is one that me and Sango know. On our planet there were thousands of different tongues, and the word we used to talk about them was "language." I guess the professor has been listening to us so much lately that he's finally picked it up… By the way, I don't think we ever learned your name."

The driver's frown softened. "Sorry about that ma'am, m'name's Regan."

"Reagan?" Sango repeated with wide eyes.

"Eh, Regan," Regan said. "What is it?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just a… I didn't hear you at first," She said.

"Ah, ah, well, seems fine," Regan said, looking back in his mirror. "Hey, you, in the red, are you from Napan like these other fine humans?"

Kagome thought about how weird it was for a demon to refer to humans as 'fine', but the moment before Inuyasha responded she realized the pitfall they hadn't thought of. Iguto was the country the Yokai Republic had fought _against_ to gain independence, and was the country their ambassador had openly chastised back in the Prialatan hospital.

"…My name is Inuyasha," he said. "_The_ Inuyasha of Iguto."

The car swerved, sending bags flying and something shattering in the back. Miroku dived into the elevated trunk as the car settled, cursing quietly as Regan put a hand through his hair.

"…Iguto, huh?" He said tersely, gripping the steering wheel.

'_DO SOMETHING DO SOMETHING DO SOMETHING!_' Kagome screamed in her head. A moment later she got it.

"I… I don't understand, is there something wrong with being from Iguto?" She asked, sounding honestly clueless. Sango frowned at her and shook her head slightly, but Kagome gave her friend a serious look before putting her attention back to the front of the car. '_Please, Inuyasha, catch on to what I'm doing_.'

Regan scoffed. "Guess you haven't been here long enough to know, miss, but Iguto is full malicious, evil leeches. There's not a drop of blood that comes out of there that's worth its weight."

Inuyasha was gripping his knees so hard he tore holes into his jeans, but his voice was level when he said, "The king I have to serve is a good example of that."

Regan's entire head whirled when he heard that, but then turned back to watch the road. "…First time I've heard a leech sound reasonable about something before,"

"I'm a half-demon, not a leech," Inuyasha shot back. His tone was still level but something below it was fighting hard to get out. "And I didn't get to choose where I was born or what part of society I was thrown into. Doesn't make sense to me to think less of someone for something they can't help."

Regan's shoulder rippled. "…Maybe so… sounds like you're not a close family member to the Tome's writer."

"I've seen the effects of the Silver Emperor's actions, a lot more clearly lately than when I was younger, and I don't find much justice in those ways."

Regan scoffed but chuckled up in the front. Kagome, sitting between Sango and Inuyasha, slowly placed her hand on top of Inuyasha's, which was still boring into his knee. His hand tensed for a moment but then calmed.

"So what else can you tell us about Kwis tongue?" Kagome asked, trying for the 'I'm cute and clueless' sound again.

"Ah, heh heh, first it's pronounced more like Q-ist than kwis. Kwis doesn't just mean them, it means all o' us. Demons, half-demons, humans, kwis… it means everyone. Kinda cool really - - leader Hitomi was inspired by the kwis during the war for independence, and used their philosophy to build the Yokai Republic."

"Yes, very cool…" Kagome said. She was wary of any talk about a 'great leader', having lived through the collapse of North Korea. Regan continued his talk on Kwis tongue for the two-hour drive into their lands, throwing in jibes against Iguto whenever he could, laughing fiendishly. Inuyasha laughed at some of the cuts, but each sounded pale to what Kagome had heard last night. She kept her hand on his as he tensed through the worst of it. '_…Who knew he has self-restraint…'_

They arrived at the research camp after another hour of driving. Kagome stepped out into the humid jungle air, momentarily confused by the golden light outside. Of course they were very far north, and there would be hardly any night shade at this latitude during the summer. But to have been riding a train through progressively colder territories to wind up in a tropical jungle left Kagome disoriented despite her comprehension.

The four piled into the facility, a blocky thing made of rusting sheet metal and rising three stories high. Not far off from the main entrance Kagome could see a slow moving stream, emptying into a bay farther off, and then in distant fog jagged teeth of mountains. While the trees and foliage had strange shapes and decorative hues, at least they were green. Mostly.

"…that's the mess hall right there," Regan listed off as he showed them around the first level of the building. Kagome wasn't bothered much by the shoddy lighting, wood plank walls or sometimes dirt clod floor, but it seemed Inuyasha was. She noticed him crinkling his nose at the shadowy mess hall, the doors with missing doorknobs, and the ladder put up in place of stairs elicited one very loud scoff. She elbowed him in the side when Regan came close to noticing.

"But yeah, that's most of the main area. Kikyo's around here somewhere, she's supposed to give you guys a mini-orientation and stuff… Hey, Kraig, you seen Kikyo?" Kraig, who had antennae sticking out from his forehead, hadn't. "Well anoeh - - you guys stay right here, I'll go figure out where the queen is…"

"This place is disgusting," Inuyasha finally said, a moment after Regan disappeared around a corner.

"Oh, poor prince, what are you going to do?" Sango shot back. "Is the big bad dirt going to get you?"

"This is what most research facilities are like, Inuyasha," Miroku added, though he also sounded sullen. "Most places don't have finances like Iguto or Ko to throw around wherever they want. Even Napanese research facilities up in the mountains are about like this."

"It's reprehensible. Our private quarters had better not be like this," Inuyasha muttered to himself.

"Oh let it be," Kagome said. "Complaining about something isn't going to fix it."

"You're one to be talking, you got us into this hell-hole in the first place," Inuyasha snapped back. Sango's mouth hung open for am moment before she swiped at him with one of her bags, but he knocked it back against one of the wooden walls, making the light above them flicker.

"Sango, Sango, its okay…" Kagome said, pushing the two away from each other. "We're all on edge, especially after the drive. Let's just breathe and try to hold it together, okay?"

"And whose fault is it that we're in this fucked up situation in the first place?" Inuyasha muttered. Kagome pressed her lips together and raised an eyebrow, but sighed instead of retaliating. She started to regret comforting him just a few hours ago.

Regan appeared from around the corner again, followed by a woman in a long, red medical coat. She had long black hair and small elliptical glasses… and dark hazel eyes, just like Kagome's, and a slight wave in her hair, just like Kagome's. Once the two locked eyes they couldn't tear their gaze away from each other, even when standing just a foot apart.

"Well… this is… interesting…" Miroku said when the silence went on too long. The woman shook a little bit and smiled politely.

"Goodness Regan, you weren't joking with me. Good afternoon, my name is Kikyo, I'm the Executive Research Manager here," The woman said in a cool, smooth tone. "I apologize for staring, but I wasn't expecting to meet a doppelganger."

"Me neither," Kagome said with a smile. She reached out her hand to shake, but Kikyo flinched for a moment before accepting it. Kagome looked at Kikyo slightly confused.

"I'm sorry, I'm not used to Napanese greetings," She said. She gave a slight bow towards Sango, Miroku, and Inuyasha, leaving Kagome feeling quite put out. A bow was the normal greeting for the Japanese, but everything in Beji seemed so American that she figured that would be the norm…

"So your names are Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and Inuyasha…?" Kikyo asked to each of them. "Hold on… Inuyasha? As in…"

"Yes, I'm the Prince who got knocked off the throne," The irritable hanyou replied. "What's it to you?"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome and Sango hissed at him.

Kikyo's smile faded into a thin line. She turned her head slightly to her left, bowed it, and looked back at him. "You honor us with your work here, Prince. This one knew that an Igutoni was joining our crew, but this one never would have expected this."

Kagome tilted her head and looked at Sango. She caught Miroku's gaze shooting over to Inuyasha, and then back to Kikyo.

"You seem well… uh…" Miroku began to say, but he cut himself off. Inuyasha filled in with: "You are accustomed to Igutoni ways of society. How is this the case?"

'_The hell?_' Kagome's mind spat out, looking back at the woman before her.

"My family was of one of the human settlements in the western Kaybek Mountains, near the Bruns Lands," Kikyo replied softly. Iguto was my home until the reign of the usurper, at which point this one fled to the Youkai Republic. It does a great disservice to Throne of the Dog and Wolf to be left so bereft of adequate leadership."

"Always got to be so _fancy_, Miss Kikyo," Regan muttered behind her.

Inuyasha's crossed arms fell to his hips. He looked around at the others, then back at the bowed head of Kikyo.

"You don't have to keep bowing, we're not at the King's Court or something," He muttered. But Kikyo kept her head bowed for several more moments before standing up again with a gentle smile. She briefly collected the other's names before opening her arms down the hall in a guide-like manner.

"Our amenities are not pristine, but they are useful, and usefulness is greater than useless show," Kikyo said, giving a nod toward the bare walls and the wiring hanging from the ceiling.

"A little show would be nicer," Inuyasha quipped, thereafter getting a firm jab in the stomach from Kagome.

"Sorry, Miss Kikyo, our royal highness is a little edgy after the long ride," Kagome said apologetically.

"I was too after my ride here," Kikyo replied smoothly. "But I do not think that the ride alone was enough to inspire such comment. I agree with the King In Waiting: the facilities are in disrepair and a pain to gaze upon, but as this is what the Yokai Republic gives us to work with, we will work with it."

"You sound kinda spiteful, Miss Kikyo," Regan muttered, walking along side her. Kagome held back a moment to let Sango catch up with her.

"She seems nice," Sango whispered. "Though kinda stuffy."

"And weird…," Kagome muttered. "She's tripping over herself to look cordial to Inuyasha. It's obvious and sad."

"Well, she is being really polite, but that's probably just what life was like for her in Iguto. It's a demonic kingdom; imagine being a human there. I think you'd be trained from an early age to show respect to the people that could lop off your arm because they want to see how far your blood will squirt."

"That's a lovely image."

"Military training does that."

"Look, look at that!" Kagome hissed, jerking her head ahead. Kikyo was had finished going over the history of how the facility was set up and was talking about something to do with security patrols. Inuyasha was smiling and shaking his head, saying something to which she smiled. "And the jerk's just eating it up!"

"Uh… Kagome, he probably heard you say that. The ears, remember?"

Shit. Kagome let her head fall forward. "Oh well… both are true."

"Sango, Kagome, please stay with us," Kikyo called, craning her head around Inuyasha. "I don't want you to miss any important information!"

"Ah – right!" Sango said, jogging ahead to where the others were turning the corner. Kagome frowned slightly, but jogged up as well.

"…the morning fog is similar to the Kaybek miasma, yes," Kikyo was saying, moving down the short hall to a concrete staircase. There was an opening for a door at the bottom but it opened directly to the green foliage outside.

"Yeah, the miasma was nice sometimes, but I hated it as a kid. That was when the noble's children were waiting to ambush me outside." Inuyasha replied. Miroku frowned and look down at his feet, throwing a glance back at the girls with a nod.

'_…He's talking about his childhood? It took two and a half months for him to open up to me, and he's just… guh. _' Kagome's frown deepened.

Up the stairs they went to the dormitories. They encountered a few people in the halls, mostly humans aside from a pair of women with cat ears and an elderly fellow with a lizard tongue. Kagome shook herself a bit when they stopped in front of one of the board rooms: she'd gotten used to Inuyasha's quirks, but it might take a while with these new people.

"This will be your room while you are here, Sango and Kagome," Kikyo said, producing a key for them both and opening the door. The room had two small beds, white, two sitting desks and a screened closet. It was cramped, but Kagome walked inside and set her bag on top of a bed, and somehow it already felt like home. She took a moment to peer out the window, pushing aside an insect screen to get a better view.

"Oh, don't move that!" Kikyo shot out. "We have to make sure that no outside vermin make it inside. Please leave that be."

Kagome withdrew quickly and stood carefully in front of the woman in red. For a moment she saw her father's face superimposed on her body, but a blink or two relieved her of the image.

"Then why was there no door on the steps on the first floor?" Sango asked, hands on her hips.

"Security personnel necessitate easy access to the outdoors at all times. We keep certain doors removed to ensure the safety of our researchers," Kikyo replied with a well-practiced tone.

"But wouldn't that—?" Sango began to push, but Kagome took her arm.

"I won't disturb anything on the windows again, Miss Kikyo, I apologize. The room is very nice, thank you; we'll be perfectly settled here." Kagome replied, pulling out every genuine sound in her voice. The lady in red neither smiled nor frowned, merely gave a brief head bow before leaving the room with the boys.

Sango and Kagome looked at each other, the former with a sour visage. They heard the others hurrying down the hall, so they scampered out of their room in pursuit.

"Did you lock the door?" Kikyo asked as they reached them. "In the future, lock your door before you leave it. It's the easiest way to prevent theft."

Kagome struggled hard not to leer at Inuyasha when he nodded along.

"What would anyone want with our things? They're rather worthless," Sango replied. Kikyo shook her head and stepped up to another room. "Please go back and lock it. Miroku and Crown Prince Inuyasha, this is the room that has been set up for you two…."

Regan, Sango, Kikyo and the boys let themselves into the room as Kagome scurried back to hers, key in hand. As she locked the door she idly wondered if the research facility had been converted from an internment camp and someone forgot to change the management. Once done she found she didn't care enough to run back to the impromptu orientation and room assignments, so she strolled past the doors, giving a friendly smile and nod to those who she crossed, who for the most part did the same. Sango and Regan were leaving the boys room just as Kagome stepped up, in time to hear:

"…really is a dump." Inuyasha said flatly.

"It is nice for this one to hear that. Come people choose to lie, to say that our accommodations are fine and homely, but their sugary lies fool no one. Your directness is appreciated, King in Waiting."

"Ah, you're, uh, welcome," the words stumbled out of his mouth. "And you can call me Prince or Prince Inuyasha."

He stepped out of the room a moment later, scratching the back of his head and covered with slight blush. He looked at Kagome, who was still stung from the title of 'sugary liar.

"What?" Inuyasha snapped at her. Kagome frowned slowly.

"I didn't say anything…" she replied. He scoffed and kept moving. Kikyo stepped out of the room, looked at Inuyasha and Kagome quizzically, but pressed on to the other important rooms on the second floor: the communal baths, a laundry room with clothes lines along the rafters, and the emergency armory, lined to the brim with sleek crossbows, thick body armor, and spit-knife weapons. Kagome stared at a poster on the wall written in Standard and Demon Tongue with a picture of a blue humanoid creature. There were targets over its upper chest, stomach, pelvis, and knees.

"Are there many problems with the Kwis? Uh, Qwist?" Kagome asked as Kikyo started leading the troupe out of the room.

"Yes," Kikyo replied firmly.

"Hey, no disrespect Miss Kikyo, but we haven't had any problems with 'em for a while now. Their last raid was two months ago. We scared 'em good with the new spit knives—"

"Two months ago we lost three faculty and only found one of their boots. Several weeks prior to that Dr. Totosai was mauled and taken the next day. We have no idea where River Tribe 6A is, Hill Tribe 1A has started five forest fires over the last three weeks, and we still don't know which tribe is responsible for the mass grave we found along the harbor cliffs. There are problems, Regan, and if you are not vigilant your weak observations will no longer be a problem of mine."

"Whoa, its really that bad?" Miroku asked. Regan kicked some loose dirt on the floor while Kikyo gave him a firm nod.

"Tomorrow the head of security will meet with each of you to give an official run down of safety rules and regulations. Know ahead of time that we are strict with enforcement; if anyone from any research team is found breaking regulation they will be immediately removed from the facility without recommendation.

"I cannot stress this point enough… I have seen too many brilliant people carried out into the forest only to retrieve body parts later." She trailed off. Regan gave her a pat on the shoulder; she glanced at him, gave a weak smile, and straightened herself.

"Anyhow, this is the public armory. Let's continue to the upper floors to inspect the research labs, and by the time we finish that it will be time for dinner."

* * *

"Miroku what kind of researchers did you sign us up as?" Kagome asked amongst the clamor of mess hall. It was remarkably similar to the one she'd encountered at the Prialatan hospital, only without the friendly cooks and non-dirt floors.

"I'm set to work in the biochem labs, and Sango is officially my grad student-" He began.

"Why am I not surprised?" Sango whimpered next to him.

"While you, Kagome, are a grad student in Anthropology. You were supposed to work under Dr. Totosai, but I guess word hadn't been released that he'd been taken to the forests and eaten."

"…Did you really have to take that sentence as far as you did?" Kagome muttered. She looked down at the bean mash on her tray. While other researchers, demon and otherwise, gobbled the stuff down like it was legal LSD, her stomach had firmly closed its hatch and was touting rebel songs.

"Sorry… humanities researchers are rare up here, so it seemed best to keep me in my biochem—ahh!" Miroku dropped his fork* and winced, grasping his wrist.

"Whoa, what is it?" Sango asked, snagging the fork* before it fell off the table.

"Sorry, nothing, just a strange pain all the sudden," Miroku said, flicking his hand as if to wick away the pain. "I'm staying in the biochem labs and am going to compare the DNA of Demons to that of Kwis, humans, and hanyo. I have no doubt that we can prove that Demons, hanyo, and humans are genetically liked - - like you said all that time ago Kagome, its obvious. It'll probably bring up that stupid sequencing argument amongst my contemporaries but—"

"Miroku, focus." Kagome coached.

"Ah, yes. That's my plan anyhow, though, with how things are around here with security," He looked sidelong at the minotaur demon in black body armor outside the mess hall window, holding a giant crossbow. "That might be tricky."

"Miroku… are you sure you're alright? You're still rubbing your wrist…" Sango said softly. Kagome looked down; indeed he was.

"I'm fine… really Sango I'm fine, don't worry… Anyhow, Kagome, I suspect you'll have free reign upstairs in Dr. Totosai's office. Your knack is in figuring out social dynamics and modern relevance to arcane cultural schemas."

Sango sat back for a moment, wide eyed. She looked to her friend. "What did he just say? I'm just a Florida girl who knows how to shoot things."

"He meant that if I see similar stories coming up over and over again amongst a certain group of people, I can usually figure out why it's important as well as what that implies about the people's history." Kagome translated.

"See, why couldn't you just say it like that?" Sango said to Miroku.

"…Because I'm a professor and I get off on using jargon?" He replied.

Sango's face scrunched up and she laughed.

At one of his jokes.

With a sexual innuendo.

Kagome and Miroku looked at each other warily, then back to Sango. A sheepish smile pulled on Miroku's mouth, and he chuckled along with his grad student. Kagome let a toothy smile spread across her face, lingering until a certain Hanyo walked past the table and out of the mess hall.

"And… what is Inuyasha supposed to be doing all this time?" Kagome asked coldly.

"He is officially looking into defense strategies and testing. He's going to be working closely with the head of security while we're here," Miroku replied. "I was hoping that he might use that place to keep any curious security personnel off our backs…"

"…But you're not now," Sango finished. "Because he's turned into a big spoiled baby during the course of one car ride."

"I know it looks like that, but I'm not convinced," Miroku replied. "When Inuyasha's upset about the caliber of something he just gripes a bit about it but moves on. I've only seen him get like this a few times, and in the past it was for very different reasons then what we've seen today. Lets give him a few days to cool down and see what happens."

Kagome looked down at her bean mush and tried to swallow some of it. Inuyasha didn't have a scar-free mind, she knew that, but it was that he'd become buddy-buddy with this Kikyo person in the course of a few hours that bothered her; that and the fact that he was distancing himself from Miroku, Sango, and herself. A few more sorry fork*fuls later and Kagome excused herself, dumping her tray in a small vestibule and meandering out of the rancorous room. There, just outside the front entrance of the building, stood Inuyasha, fiddling with something in his fingers.

"Hey…," Kagome said softly, leaving some distance between them as she approached.

"What do you want?" He churled, not looking up. Kagome saw the crumpled remains of a leaf between his claws.

"I was just coming to see if… well, you've seemed kinda on edge today. I thought… maybe when Regan was talking about politics on the drive up it might have gotten to you or something."

"Keh," Inuyasha flicked the green mass out into the open dirt area surrounding the facility. "Let the degenerate think what he wants."

"Degenerate?" Kagome reproached. "Where'd that come from?"

"He's one of the traitors. Someone like you wouldn't understand," was his reply.

"Oh? Someone like me?" She raised an eyebrow. "I happen to know a fair deal about societies and politics and such, Inuyasha, I don't think—"

"_Prince_ Inuyasha," He snapped.

"Oh god, not this again," Kagome muttered, putting a hand on her forehead. She walked around so that she stood in front of him. "Okay, Inuyasha, when we got off the train this morning you were civil, considerate… you were my friend. But since we've gotten here, it's… it's, I don't know, it's like you're a completely different person and I don't understand what's happened."

"Keep your emotions to yourself," He retorted, looking away from her again. "Its annoying otherwise."

She wanted to smack him or yell at him, but that wouldn't do anything but piss him off. She'd regret it later too. Kagome stood there with her hands on her hips fuming for a moment, trying to figure out what to do.

"Tell me what's bothering you," She eventually said.

"Go the fuck away," He shot back.

"No. Something's bothering you and you're not talking about it. You may not even be thinking about it. Don't run from—"

"Don't you tell me what to do you fucking peasant!" Inuyasha shouted, shoving Kagome in the chest. She opened her eyes to popping lights, which slowly faded to show the deep red of sunset. Kagome coughed deep, but her lungs refused to take air in. For a few moments she lay scrunched on the ground heaving, but slowly air worked its way in. She rolled over to face the ground, and looked back towards the front entrance. Inuyasha was still standing there, looking like he hadn't moved a muscle from when he shoved her. Except his eyes were wide, those of a child who realized his strength was more than he'd expected.

A moment later one of the minotaur guards appeared next to her. "Comrade, what happened?" It asked.

"Not… a comrade…," she wheezed. "I'm… a Napanese human…"

"Still a comrade in my book," the minotaur said. In one move he'd picked her up and set her on her feet. Kagome rocked back and forth for a moment as her balance reset, in the process glancing at the entrance. Inuyasha was gone.

* * *

"Yeah, in demon tongue Kwis lands are known as the Forests of Suicide," Regan said grinning, his arms crossed and leaning on the doorway. "Doesn't surprise me the worm freaked out and showed his real colors."

"God, you call him a worm, he calls you a degenerate…" Kagome muttered, fluffing her pillow before wincing. She'd already established that she had bruises from where Inuyasha hit her. "How do either of you expect to get enough respect from the other to make a lasting peace?"

"That reminds me, I'm strangling Inuyasha with his hair tomorrow morning, don't let me forget," Sango said bitterly, sitting on her bed. "Someone could get freaked out about being here and having less than gold standard amenities, but Kagome this time he's gone berserk."

"I keep telling you, its not him, its just how Igutoni's react to things up here," Regan said. "Some of them take to it bad real fast, for others it builds over a few weeks until they explode and run outta here."

Kagome rolled her eyes. That was a stupid excuse for what was obviously –

"So Igutoni researchers have had this problem in the past?" Sango asked.

"Yup, every single one save for Miss Kikyo, but she's a human from the Kaybek mountains, they're used to the air here." Regan replied with a smile. "Oh yeah, she told me to give you these, and she also said to tell you Miss Kagome not to worry, she will talk to _his majesty_ tonight about proper behavior between the people that work here." He grabbed a weary paper bag from his feet, reached inside, and pulled out two red blankets and alarm clocks. The girls took them and thanked him.

"Gotta tell you one more thing before lights out," Regan said, putting his hands on his hips. Kagome tried not to laugh as he clearly flexed his arm muscles as hard as he could, milking his sleeveless shirt for all its worth. "If you see a Qwist - - I'm not sayin' you will, but if you do, don't say nothin'. Some people have tried to talk to them in Demon tongue and non-demon tongue, and that just pisses 'em off. Only Dr. Totosai figured out how to communicate with them, still don't know how... but don't talk to them. Just stare at them and they'll leave you be. Security'll tell you otherwise, but they're a bunch of pin-brains."

"Thanks Regan," Sango said with a smile. "For that and for keeping tabs on all of us today."

"Hey, we're comrades, we gotta look out for each other," Regan said with a smile. He gave a nonchalant knock on the wall before turning out the door.

"Wait, Regan!" Kagome called. He stopped and turned around, eyebrows high. "What do you mean by 'comrade'? I've heard it a few times today but…"

"Ah, well see, most of Demon kind thinks they're better than everyone else out there, like the worm down the hall," He jerked his head towards the boys' room. "The Emprist Tome says that Demons are first, half demons second, and humans are meant to serve demons. Qwist are basically the scum of Beji. There's even a hierarchy within all that, with some kinds of demons better than others - - the dogs and wolves fight about that interpretation of the Tome all the time.

"But really that's a bunch of shit," Regan continued with a smile. "And that's the official ideology of the Republic. When the House of Dog went nuts because their heir was a hanyo, and then the wolves howled about broken claims to the throne, a lotta demons just said fuck it. This is stupid. Demons are no better than humans, and half-demons are on the level too. We broke off from the vain bastards and formed our own country, the first _real_ pluralist society, not like that place Ko down south. Nope, we're first. That's one of the reasons I decided to come up here to the Qwist lands; I want to be part of the people who reach out and connect with them, ya know? Figure out if we can come to an understanding. And also make sure no one else fucks with them, 'cause if they do they fuck with all of us. We're all comrades in the Republic. Both of you too, even though you ain't from there."

The room was silent for a moment. Kagome looked over at Sango, whose face was red.

"_Finally SOMETHING _about this planet makes sense…," she said. Regan laughed, winked at her, and bid goodnight, closing the door behind him.

"I don't care what the others say, coming up here was the right idea," Sango declared, shifting off of her bed covers to slip under them.

"What? Is Miroku saying that?" Kagome asked. Sango winced and slowed her movement into her bed.

"Well, kinda. You remember that night in Polis when you brought it up - - he was vehemently against it. I think he's accepted that sometime to learn something important you have to go into a dangerous area. But… he did say after you left that he doubted how much we could find out about demon origins—"

"Plum wine," Kagome corrected.

"Right right, plum wine up here. But in the end I think he knows why we're up here. It's scary and we may not learn anything, but its better than nothing."

Kagome nodded. So Miroku and Inuyasha were having doubts about being up here. Along with those of her mother and Kaede, of course… She looked over at Sango just as the lights flickered out. Her friend had pulled her ponytail out and her hair was splayed all across the pillow she was trying to get comfortable on. Eventually she settled, and a while later her breathing turned deep and rhythmic.

Kagome looked back at the door, staring for unknown time. The Kwis, The Youkai Republic, the hints about Dr. Totosai's work… there was so much to learn about tomorrow, but at the same time she didn't know if she wanted to see what was going to happen outside that door. Was Regan right about Inuyasha just going nuts? Would the security detail even let her find anything out about the Kwis? And then there was Miss Kikyo…

She lay herself down on her pillow. It figured - - right as she realized she had feelings for a guy for the first time in ages he goes mad the next day. Why was her heart so stupid? Why were hearts so stupid in general? She shook her head and closed her eyes. Loud chirps and squeaks of nocturnal life outside pierced through flashes of her father attacking her, of zombies and cars and guns. She swiftly slipped into sleep, but awoke on a battlefield.

The sky was smoky and orange, with hints of violet swirled in like the brushwork of Luanda grasses. Kagome looked down to the ground, scared with ashes and black, and only then noticed she was naked.

"It has been a long time," a high nasal voice said behind her. Kagome whirled around to see Paak, sitting comfortably amongst the earthy ruin. His fox fur was immaculate, but there was a tear in one of his ears.

"Paak… what in the world happened here?" Kagome asked. She kept looking around, seeing the giant claw marks in the ground far off, as if made by a monster the size of a mountain.

"You may recall," Paak began, not waiting for Kagome's attention to return to him. "That the last time we communicated I mentioned that not all of the Gods here on Beji were willing to accept us new comers? In fact, there was one—"

"Yes, yes I remember," Kagome replied, still staring in the smoky distance, where she was just able to make out the small, furry bodies of foxes strewn across a plain. "Oh god Paak… What did he do to you?"

"Hm? He?" Paak asked.

"My father…," Kagome replied. "I've found out that my father created a massive empire thousands of years ago on this planet, and ever since he's been worshiped like a divine figure… I remember you saying that there was a great force around the continent of Asigo that was battling you and Inari, and I think that 'god' is my father."

"Well, that is intriguing, and it seems appropriate considering his targets, but that assertion appears inaccurate." Paak said.

Kagome turned back to look at him. "What?"

"Inari has brokered an alliance with many other gods on Ibeji, some of which claim the title 'Silver Emperor' and resonate from Asigo."

Kagome sat down carefully before Paak, watching his little head tilt down to watch her. "Some… you mean there is more than one divine creature that claims the name of Silver Emperor?"

"That is correct," Paak replied. "Some have welcomed us, others have combatted us. The place where you usually reside in Asigo has been overrun by one of those gods - - I came very close to contacting you some weeks ago, but I could not hold the connection."

Kagome nodded slowly. "…My family has settled in a land called Ko, but right now I am far to the north in a place that belongs to something called the Kwis… or Qwist or however you pronounce it."

"Indeed. This area does not know divine creatures, but it knows divinity. Inari plans on recouping here as long as you allow it."

Kagome wanted to ask why that was the case, and many more things for that matter, but she shook her head and focused her mind. "Paak, why did you call me this time? What do you have to tell me?"

"That was quite an arrogant question," Paak remarked. "Are you not at all concerned about the many forms that have been working to protect you, the many who have lost their divine form and moved on to join the clouds?"

Kagome's shoulders slunk. "…I'm sorry. I saw them all just a moment ago… I just… I don't know what I'm doing, or what I'm supposed to be doing. And I can't even pretend to understand what is going on here, on this level of things…"

Paak sat back slightly and placed one paw on top of the other. "I appreciate your openness and acceptance of your ignorance. Do not forget, Kagome, that you have faced moments in your life where you had no clear direction nor idea of where you were."

"…But I don't remember how I handled them," Kagome admitted. "Paak… I've brought my friends to a no man's land where, for all I know, the native people will try to eat us. I did it because we found out that demons are connected to the Kwis somehow, and we were threatened against pursuing any more information about demons, so I figured that learning about the other half of the story might give me some more insight… but insight into what? And for what? I see you and all of these divine creatures fighting to protect me, and you've told me that somehow or another I'm the only one who can prevent this world from falling apart, but… how? Why?..."

"I sense there is a dark question you wish to ask but are scared to…" Paak replied slowly. Kagome nodded. "Go ahead and ask it. There is no shame in honesty."

Kagome closed her eyes slowly and felt her cheeks rise, trying to push tears out of her. "Is… is it even worth it? Is this place even worth helping? What happens after I do whatever I'm supposed to save it? It's not like there's such a thing as happy ever after. I'm not a savior and I won't live forever… even if I can somehow stop a threat that, oh yeah, no one has really explained to me, there will be others in the future. What's the point of trying to save something that's doomed?"

"The point is that in this moment, right now, there are billions of stories that are in danger," Paak replied. "You are not responsible for the everlasting safety of life on this planet. No one person or being ever is. Because of your history, and because of the alignment of many circumstances, you will be in an ideal position to prevent billions of lives from ending."

"But there are other planets," Kagome replied. "Ibeji does not hold all life in the universe. It doesn't even hold all human life - - there are other colony planets out there that have surely figured out how to survive somehow. Besides, life is not absolute. One day all things will be gone. I will die and become grass and other things, which will be eaten by things that will die, and so on until this planet crumbles. My minerals will scatter, and one day the universe will break apart. One day protons will break apart, and electrons, and there will be a universe devoid of—"

"Is that what is happening now?" Paak interjected.

"…In a sense, yes," Kagome replied. "It is a process that takes billions of years to complete."

"Exactly. One day divinity will fade, and all of the universe will have its unconscious peace," Paak replied. "But that day is not today. That moment is not this moment. I suspect, Kagome, that for most of your life you have looked into the future for happiness and for answers, am I wrong?"

Kagome sat there blinking. "What do you mean?"

"I know some of your family life," Paak replied. "And I know more about your wishes. You waited for the day your father would no longer make you suffer, presuming that once he was gone you could live happily. But now he haunts you in your dreams. You waited for the day to be out of school, to have an occupation so then you could live truly. You are no longer in school, and are occupied by looking into the origins of demons and Kwis so as to uncover the nefarious forces at work on the mortal plain. But you do not feel you are living truly. As you entered communicative distance, I saw your wish to one-day share yourself with a white haired young man, presuming this would great happiness. But you already share your existence with him right now, and are feeling miserable.

"These things," Paak continued. "Show me that you expected the future to be great, and as more facets of life proved that not to be the case your heart has hardened. In fact, it has hardened even more around the idea - - you wish for the future to be undeniably wonderful. In so doing you are not living. You live in the future, not the present, and therefore cannot be happy, nor can you know what direction is appropriate for your life right now.

"Will the planet one day die? Yes. And there will be many a trial for it in the future if you succeed in deflecting the calamity that heads towards us. But those things are in the future. Must we be aware of them and mindful of them? Yes. But you do not allow them to overwhelm you, to steal your attention. Joy, solace, compassion and freedom can only live in the present moment, and if you wish to cultivate those feelings, then you must cultivate your present self."

"But-!"

"No buts!" Paak chirped.

"—I left my family and made people pay high prices just to get me here and—!"

"I JUST SAID NO BUTS! END OF LECTURE!" Paak yelled back. Kagome started and let out a long breath of air. When did she start holding her breath?

"Kagome… I come to you when I can, but you are the one who actually calls out to me," Paak said. "When your spirit is in distress, I am alerted and come to see what I can do to help you along your way… clearly something is bothering you, and on a deeper level than what you have said so far."

Kagome nodded slowly. "I think… I made a mistake… in convincing people to come here… In regards to finding out about demons, and also… in regards to someone I only realized yesterday that I've gotten very attached to…the white haired guy…"

Paak tilted his head for a moment before walking forward, sitting down next to Kagome, and nuzzling her leg. She reached down and pet his head as tears of confusion stabbed at her eyes.

* * *

See why I needed to cut this thing in half?

Chapter preview:

To be present one must be aware, and to be aware one must have attention. To have this attention one must ignore all other things around herself, but to do so yields painful social consequences. Kagome is forced to make a choice between presentness and worry, with one path leading to an embrace she wants and the other to future of destitution. Which one leads to which future?

Moreover, a secret begins to unravel Miroku's finely designed façade, and the norms of life in Kwis Lands move people in unforeseeable directions. Tectonics' are moving, and the first of the small quakes are coming, foretelling a thunderous cataclysm.


	17. Chapter 15

My life = so much drama. Family, illness, school, job, existential, amorous, etc. I have given up and am just laughing at it all. Oh life. Take a chill pill.

This is actually a really interesting chapter, to me anyhow. Up until this point Kagome's character, while going through several trials and tribulations, has not demonstrated many negative aspects, psychosis aside. Inuyasha has his stubbornness, sour attitude, and mood swings; Sango has her deep prejudices and knee-jerk violence; Miroku is licentious, prodding, and at times mildly manipulative. No offense to die-hard fans, but no one is perfect, and this includes our dear Kagome. By the end of this chapter that fact will be very clear.

Though there is something else I want to mention before the chapter begins. Faults, quirks, cruelties, etc. … they all exist for a reason. The reason may not be reasonable, may be unclear or so novel that it can't stick in our heads, but a reason there is. We've gotten some good ideas about why Inuyasha and Sango are the way they are, and enough back history of Kagome to understand her neurosis, and that same history will become useful when considering what is about to happen. Miroku's reasons are about to become clearer in this writ as well. So… with all that out of the way, sit back, curl up, and read away.

Last note I swear - - I have not edited this as extensively as I wanted to because I wanted to get this out to you all asap. Forgive me the occasional misspelling and wacko grammar.

* * *

Chapter 15

* * *

Morning arrived with the shouting of deep voices in the forest outside the girl's room, followed by a thunderous bang. Sango jumped up, snatched the gun from under her pillow, and aimed at the window where the sound came from. Kagome yelped and flipped out of her bed and onto the floor, tangled in sheets.

"Something's going on…" Sango muttered, running over to the window.

"No, you think?!" Kagome lashed back. Another boom. Kagome got up as best she could and hopped over to the window with her linen cocoon. Beneath them several security personnel were running in the direction of the river, but a wing of the building prevented the girls from seeing what they were pursuing. At the base of the building there lay a naked body, riddled with knives. It was holding a mace and had blue skin.

* * *

Do not leave the research facility without a security escort.

Keep a collapsible baton with you at all times.

Do not tamper with the ground level ventilation windows.

These were some of the rules drilled into Kagome's skull at the end of the morning's security briefing. She wandered around Research Lab 5.3, bumping into people in her grogginess, until she found Regan standing before her.

"Hey, what's up Napan-alien? You hear the stuff this morning?"

"Hunh? Oh, yeah, it was actually right under our room," Kagome said. "Look, I just got let out of the security scare-festival; do you know where I'm supposed to be right now? I'm here to work and I'd like to do so. To work I mean."

"Ah, didn't Miss Kikyo give it to you?" He asked.

"Eh? Give me what?"

"Your - - ah, nah, never mind, I'll take ya to Records and we'll get ya where ya need to be." He said, walking on and beckoning her to follow. Kagome did, trying not to step on the tails of his beige lab coat.

"You 'n your friends gonna do anything for Tojiyo?" Regan asked nonchalantly.

"…I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Aw right, alien, alien…" Regan muttered. He slipped his hands behind his head, arms up and out, elbows pointing out like beacons determined to advertise his masculine charm. Kagome ducked when one of them almost knocked her in the temple. "Tojiyo's a big thing in Nafika and the Demon Countries. You know all the demons came from Napan, right?"

"Yeah…," Kagome said slowly.

"Yeah. There's a lot of things the Napanese and the Demons have in common. But right, Tojiyo - - it's kinda like a city thing, where each city or town or whatever comes together and has these big parades where they carry statues of important people or these funny little shrine things."

"Sounds like Shinto festivals…"

"Hunh? You say something?"

Apparently super-human hearing wasn't a universal characteristic of demons or their offspring. "Nope. I've never heard of Tojiyo. Miroku might, and perhaps Inuyasha has…"

They turned a corner, and Regan let out and irritated sigh. "He went off on someone else this mornin', the _prince_. Its those Iguto people, none of 'em can take the forest."

"…What did he do?" Kagome asked. Regan's arms collapsed inwards around his head, and then one hand reached back and scratched the back of his skull.

"Don't know all the details, I just know it involved that girl from the Anthropology office. Ah, here we go, Records. Yo, Kraig, think you an fix up my girl Kagome?"

Both Kagome and Kraig glared at Regan, who continued to smile boyishly. Kraig asked Kagome a few questions from behind his wall window, looked at her passport briefly, and before Kagome could start to sweat over his unusually long stare at it he provided her with a light blue lab coat and some papers. She and Regan thanked him; as Kagome put on her coat, Regan looked over her itinerary.

"Yeah, so it says… hah! Talk about weird world, you're going up to the third floor to the Anthropology office where that girl works, the one the _prince_ went off on!"

"Oh joy…" Kagome muttered. She followed Regan's lead up unlit stairs to the third floor, then down two corridors until she faced a long hall peppered with doors, much like the dormitories down below.

"Do you know what the other assistant's name is?" Kagome asked.

"Wait for it…," Regan stared up at the ceiling for a moment, blowing a lock of bangs out of his eyes. "Aw yeah! Her name's Rin."

"Rin, got it." Kagome said, turning to open the door.

"Have an awesome day Kagome," Regan said, leaning over and placing a peck on her cheek and winking. Kagome's mouth fell open just too late for him to see as he turned confidently on his heel and started walking down the hall, whistling a happy tune.

Kagome frowned, but turned towards the door, but it stuck and she knocked her foot against it.

The scars on the bottom of her feet stung, and it was back, in the rain, running, she was hitting Lucknow in the face with her heel, the blood running down, Inuyasha shoving her angrily, Erris shoving her back against the side of the car - -

'_BREATHE'_. Something inside Kagome's head shot through the memories. Her head was leaning against the door. She looked down at her hand, still stuck on the doorknob; she pulled it away and found it covered with sweat. Kagome exhaled deeply, closed her eyes… Was it Paak's voice that called out to her? Or her own? She was so confused… _'but I have to keep moving. It may not make sense why I'm here, but I have to keep trying. That's the only way I'll figure this out.'_

She opened the door, and smacked someone else in the face, who yelped and fell back. Kagome peered around the door and saw a girl with shoulder length black hair, glasses, and a light blue lab coat lying on the floor, rubbing her nose.

"Are you Rin?" Kagome asked.

"Ow…," was the response.

* * *

"So Dr. Totosai just disappeared?" Kagome asked, sitting at her predecessor's desk, pouring over his personal notes on Kwisk language. Or Qwist. Did it really matter?

"Yeah he did, but I know it wasn't the hill tribe like everyone says," Rin replied. She had a bandage taped onto her nose and was sitting in front of the windows, eating a sandwich she snagged from the cafeteria downstairs. "The people downstairs lump all of the Kwisk together, even when they know there are different tribes, but the Kwisk are really, really diverse. Like, each one has its own value system and language variant… at least me and Dr. Totosai thought so. He was trying to get closer to one of the river tribes when he vanished."

Kagome nodded. "Miss Kikyo seemed pretty certain that he was taken violently."

Rin opened her mouth to speak, but looked away instead.

"…You… don't really like her that much do you?" Kagome asked.

After a few moments Rin said, "She is considerate, I think, but… she's, like…" She sighed. "Miss Kikyo is really smart and organized, she has her stuff together, but she's so stiff. Even more stiff than Napanese people, and that's coming from a Napanese girl!"

Kagome chuckled along with the anthropology assistant. "Isn't she from Iguto though? One of the human enclaves in the… the Kaybek mountains, is that right?"

"Yeah!" Rin exclaimed. "You know, for being new to the world you're pretty good at geography.

Kagome's smiled bemusedly. "Well… it's a huge mountain range that goes the entire length of the east coast of Asigo. It's like not knowing the Himalayas or the Alps."

"The whats?"

"Never mind."

Rin nodded and smiled, taking another bite out of her sandwich, but she winced when she adjusted her elbow do to so.

"Is something wrong?" Kagome asked.

"Yeaaah…" Rin whined. "Some jerk shoved me into the wall! I was just, you know, doing my morning thing, running around the place for some exercise, and then this guy with white hair comes out of no where, starts yelling at me in demon tongue and knocks me into the wall! I mean, like, what the hell!"

Kagome nodded. She leaned forward on Dr. Totosai's desk and rested her cheek in her palm, looking out the window at the swaying trees outside. "Yeah… in just a day he's been causing quite a bit of trouble… I was told that most people from Igutoni react to the Kwisk Lands like that… do you think that's true?"

Rin sat a moment. "Well… Miss Kikyo doesn't so much, but she's special. There've been a few other people from Iguto here, but they've always worked in other departments than me, and they left before I could get to meet them… Wait, do you know the guy who hit me this morning?"

'_Not the quickest,'_ Kagome thought. "Yes. His name is Inuyasha, Prince of Ig-"

"THE PRINCE?!" Rin squeaked, letting a slice of tomato squirt out of her sandwich and onto the book in front of her.

"Yup, _the_ prince, who up until yesterday was actually pleasant to be around. It's so strange… seeing him change so fast…,"

"How do _you_ know the Prince of Iguto?" Rin gasped. "Hasn't he been, like, living it up in Polis for the last six months?"

Ooooohhh shit. Kagome's back muscles tensed as flush ran to her face. Was Rin figuring her out? Did she just screw up? Who would she tell? Would she tell?

"What…? What's that look for?" Rin pouted. "I'm not some crazy fan girl, don't look at me like that…"

'_…fan girl… she's just curious…'_ Kagome realized, and let out a relieving sigh. "No, it was nothing. I'm just… surprised. It always seemed like… well, in New Noto no one really talked about the prince all that much. I was surprised you new all that."

"What!? Which part of New Noto were YOU in, the royal families of Iguto and Sokoku are, like, celebrities!" Rin effused. "Like, seriously, when the aliens crashed into Prialata and there was talk that the King himself might go to visit I almost dropped everything to get a 'Loon ride there!"

Kagome smiled. Rin was very, very different than her, but so happy. Her life revolved around the movements of ethereal princes and kings, not the political dance in a grenade field that Kagome saw in its place. "Okay, okay, let's let that be. You were talking earlier about how Dr. Totosai left summarized notes on the value systems of the different tribes…?"

In a few minutes Kagome was pacing around the room, cluttered with dusty, yellowing papers and well read books. Rin may have been simple, but her memory was astounding: Kagome asked her what the Remqoso system was, something her predecessor had written on one page and circled several times with no explanation, and Rin stated:

"Remqoso means something like trade in Kwis tongue, but its much closer to the idea of sharing. They are all about trading things, and then trading them back - - its one of the first things Dr. Totosai learned to do when he started interacting with the Hill tribe, who call themselves Nana Le Neot. See here, on this map, beyond that ridge and past that river. Higher up in those hills is where they live. Their main stables are potato like tubers that have pink flesh as well as the many berries and wild-life they gather from the surrounding area. I don't remember all their names, but the white berries, when missed with ovulate pink berries that grown on dark wood tree trunks, are used to promote coagulation, specifically in their stews, which is the main form of food, but the white ones on their own cause severe acute kidney failure, indicated by hematuria, oliguria, and swelling of the ankles usually. We isolated the toxin in the white berries – we call 'em Bone Berries - - as ricin, which is a glycoside hydrolase—"

"I got it Rin, I got it!" Kagome cried.

Rin also brought Kagome to the oral records the late doctor had written down, detailing the history of the Nana Le Neot people back six generations as well as mythological events, including one salivatingly called 'The Great Travel to the North'. By the dinner bell Kagome found herself desperate to swallow up all the information the stuffy, chaotic room. She got up from where she had gathered things on the floor, heading for the door.

"Where are you going?" Rin asked.

"To dinner. I want to stay in here and keep working but- - " a memory flashed through her mind, the man with the blue skin, knives in his back. She shook herself once. "…but I really should get some food."

"Dinner's not for another hour. That's the West bell," Rin replied.

"…I got here yesterday, I have no idea what the West Bell means, Rin."

Rin looked at Kagome like her head had suddenly transformed into a rabbit. "You know… for the Empricists? They have to gather for their nightly prostrations to the Silver Emperor, you know? It's their thing."

Kagome's eyebrows shot upwards as well. "Really?... wow, hunh. I, um, was taken in by some Singularists in New Noto, so I've never really seen the Empricist way…"

"But isn't the Prince Inuyasha a seriously devout follower? I mean, when he was younger he was, like, a big proselytizer in the mountains with his mother, right?"

_'…Seems like no one knows who close Inuyasha is to Kaede… or even knows all that much about the troubles in the royal family…'_

"Honestly, I've never seen him practice all that much," Kagome said.

"So how do you know the Prince?" Rin asked.

Kagome hesitated just a moment. How to handle the situation? How to… how… She smiled. "That's a story for a night when I get some plum wine. But for now I want to see what this prostration thing looks like."

Rin called out something, but Kagome was already out the door. She was somewhat curious about the prostration ceremony (or rather enraged by it, her father's craving for adulation continuing on even after his death), but really she needed to see Inuyasha. Maybe he had calmed down from this morning… well, probably not really, but she wasn't about to let the jack-ass hurt anyone else. Hurting Kagome because she'd pushed some buttons deliberately was one thing, but snapping at a kind, smart girl like Rin was not okay.

"Heya gorgeous!" Regan called as he started up the stairs she was descending. Oh god, Regan. Cleary he was interested in Kagome… and she doubted someone who'd met her the day before could be genuinely interested in _her_. Her body, perhaps, but her person? Not likely.

"Hi Regan, where's the West Bell ceremony thing taking place, I want to watch," She said, flying past him.

"Hey, wait-! It's in the atrium! But you're not supposed to—" aaaand Regan was gone. Apparently the facility had an atrium. Lovely. Now she just needed to find it.

Many wrong turns and back tracks later, Kagome arrived in front of a small hallway, the only one on the ground floor to have tiling, with steps leading down to a doorway leading to sunlight. From the sound of it there were at least a dozen people beyond it. Kagome carefully descended the steps, keeping her hand on the wall for support. The atrium's glass roof was non-existent, and the courtyard sprinkled with fledging flowers between brick-work.

Inuyasha was in the front row of the group, led by a tall, slender man with a long reptilian tail sticking out behind him. They faced west, chanting in Japanese, but each persons' chant was different, and Kagome couldn't catch a singular voice. Was that the point?

Kagome flew backward, knocking her head against the bottom step. "Get out of here!" Someone hissed at her, picking her up by the front of the shirt and shoving her up the rest of the steps. "You dirty thing, get out! Get out!"

Kagome felt the kick in her side and heard her own voice gasp for air, but somehow it was like it didn't affect her at all. There was pain, but she couldn't feel it. Dissociated from her body, Kagome watched herself roll across the hall and hit the far wall. Her head was brought up by a yank of the hair, and suddenly her own face was snarling at her.

"Know your place, alien girl. This is a class five violation of rights and regulations of this facility. If you so much as breathe out of place you are being sent back to Napan to breed with rats."

Her head was dropped, hitting the floor again. Kagome could see the entrance to the atrium sideways, and watched as Kikyo's blood-red coat swelled as it re-entered the atrium and slid away to the side, out of sight. Kagome didn't move for several minutes, in part because she couldn't connect with her body, and in part because she didn't want to. Not after she saw Inuyasha turn his gaze away from the altercation and continue following the reptile, emotionless.

Days past. Sango suspected nothing, and neither did Miroku, something Kagome attributed to her now well-honed technique for washing dried blood out of her hair. If she'd told her friends she'd be putting them all at risk of getting sent out of the research facility too early to accomplish anything. However, after learning about the vengeful culture of the lowland river-bank tribes and the southern valley tribes with Rin at week's end, Kagome did ask them about the prostrations during dinner.

"Yeah, the West Bell ceremony. It happened all the time when me 'n Inuyasha were in the Kaybek Mountains." Miroku said. Sango looked up from a packet of papers she'd been reading over.

"When you first met the prince, right?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Oh come on, I know he's acting weird but he's still just Inuyasha," Kagome jutted in. The alternative to jutting in had been to take another bite of the bean glop she'd received each day since she had arrived.

"You keep saying that, Kags," Sango replied. "If you ask me he's showing us his true colors."

"Ehh, I wouldn't be too hasty to say that," Miroku said, putting down his fork*. "Yeah, Inuyasha can be a dumb-ass prick but it's never been this bad. Something's bothering him, I know that."

"Just don't ask him about it unless you want a mouth full of dirt," Kagome said. Miroku gave her a sour look.

"Anyway, the West Bell stuff… maybe Inuyasha did more that when he was allowed back to the royal palace, but we were both raised in the Mother's tradition. I never saw him partake in any of that. Also, is it just me or is the bean mash a whole lot saltier today than normal?"

"Actually, come to think of it," Sango stared. "Where is _the prince_?"

"Isn't he working with the security people or something?" Kagome replied. Good gracious this food was nasty.

"Uh… sort of," Miroku said, looking down at his food. "Today he's, uh… he's hunting."

"…hunting?" Kagome replied, incredulous. "Like hunting animals for food hunting?"

"Yes, except without the eating part," Miroku replied.

"Jeez, what a waste of food," Sango spat.

"What a waste of life!" Kagome cried. She jumped out of her seat, ready to march over to the security office, but she needed to keep her head down. She didn't need _Miss_ Kikyo breathing down her neck any more than she already was, 'checking in' three times each day and giving poor Rin a start each time. Kagome sat back down, swelling with anger and falling into despair.

"You're not going to go find and yell at him?" Sango asked.

Kagome sat quietly for a moment before shaking her head. She stuck her hands into the pockets of her lab coat, felt a small piece of paper in one, and then remembered that, "I found something really interesting in one of Dr. Totosai's books. It was this little photo," She pulled it out, pressing it to her chest. "He wrote next to it how much this person loves plume wine."

There were no knowing glances or utterances, only a tightening of the three of them around the little chunk of table they inhabited. Kagome pulled out the photo and showed it to them.

"It's a baby girl…" Sango whispered.

"Why is this important?" Miroku asked, just as quietly.

Kagome flipped the photo over. On the back was scribbled:

_3 months old, female_

_child of Çuq-Lay, Nana Le Neout Kwis Tribe_

"What!?" Miroku gasped. Sango and Kagome knocked him to shut up. Kagome flipped the color photo back over. "But she's… she's not blue, her skin is normal. And look at her eyes, she could be Napanese or from Daoguo or something!"

"And look at this," Kagome said, reaching back into her pocket. Miroku poured some more water out of his Clarence device, downing the glass in one gulp.

"Another photo?" He asked. "Yes… it looks like the same child but her skin still looks normal, and she's… three years old? Oh, another photo… she's starting to turn blue… how old she… it says she's five."

"This girl isn't the only one," Kagome whispered. "Apparently Dr. Totosai was secretly visiting a Kwis tribe nearby, and studied tons of children. I keep finding the files folded up and hidden in random books and encyclopedias, there are dozens of them, and all the children are the same. They look exactly like humans until they're about five, and then their skin and sclera start to change."

"This… this is really great," Miroku said, handing the photos back to Kagome.

"You sound kind of upset…" Kagome replied.

Miroku and Sango looked at each other, scouted the loud dinner hall, and then returned their gaze to their friend. "This makes it look like the Kwis and humans are related, but…"

"What is it?"

"Miroku, just tell her," Sango pressed. When his shoulders sank, Sango sighed and said "We can't say for certain that they are. Apparently some researchers have done the genetic study we wanted to start already, and their results were negative, showing no correlation between demons, humans, or Kwis.

"But Bankotsu, the head of the bio-chem research unit, won't let us repeat the experiment or look at the study. We've been helping out in other experiments, but they're all harebrained. The researchers keep pushing for us to show that half-demon's have stronger immune systems than demons, or that they have better eye-sight than them… its really making us nervous."

"…Do you think they suspect you two?" Kagome said. Something across the hall caught her eye; she looked up and saw Regan waving his long arms at her like a basketball player desperate for a chance to score. Kagome waved back meekly and sat down, but to her horror saw he was working his way through the room to their table.

"Shit, finish up fast!" She hissed.

"Suffice to say we think we're being watched. Most of the Y.R. people seem fine, but some of them are watching all the others," Sango finished.

"For now, lets assume a relationship between the two," Miroku whispered. A moment later Regan appeared with his huge grin and tray of food. He sat down next to Kagome and laughed about his day, hurled some more slags at Iguto and Sokoku, and seemed completely oblivious to increasing awkwardness felt by the girl to his right.

Kagome's silence on hunting broke two days later when a knife shot through the third floor window of the Anthropology center and would have scalped Rin if she hadn't slipped on a dust bunny a moment prior. Kagome slammed her book shut and ran over to the window, and - - lo and behold - - saw Miss Kikyo, Inuyasha, and the reptile demons, amongst others, gathered around the back courtyard leading to the bay. She stalked out of the room, down the hall and two flights of steps, down another two halls and found herself face to face with one of the minotaurs she'd met many days prior.

"Comrade, you shouldn't go out there," the demon said in a deep booming voice.

"They just shot a knife thrower thing and nearly killed someone! This is insane!"

"Just let them be, Miss Kagome, just let them be," He tried. But Kagome puffed up her chest and let out a huff.

"Look, I know you are trying to be polite, but I'm not Miss. I'm just Kagome, alright? Just another person who's trying to do this thing called life." She finished having carefully twirled her way around the minotaur and into the dirt and gravel beyond, and then bolted to the merry hunting party. The guardian yelled out again, but she was already halfway to the laughing group. Well, Miss Kikyo wasn't laughing, though she did have something of a grin.

"Which one of you shot off that knife gun!" Kagome yelled.

"Hey look at this," The reptile hissed. "is it a yippy dog?"

"Kagome Higurashi, go back to your station," Kikyo called, hurrying over to Kagome to intercept.

"One of… well, someone in this party just shot off one of your knife doohickeys and nearly killed my assistant!"

"The assistant… oh, hey, that little human girl, right? Lin or something?" One of the other demons asked with a drunken slur.

"Yeah, that's right!" Another called.

"Too bad I missed!" A giant one with blue eyes said, sending the whole group into fits of laughter.

"That isn't funny!" Kagome screamed, but the demons kept walking towards the building. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

"Kikyo, muzzle the yapper would ya?" The big one said, and a moment later Kagome was yanked out of her spot and to the side of the courtyard.

"How...," Kagome began. "How can you just stand there and let them do this, talk about humans like—"

"There is a natural order in the world, Higurashi, and you need to learn your place and have respect for those superior to you," Kikyo snapped. "Demons are stronger and miles more intelligent than any half-demon or human, and they—"

"What about kwis?" Kagome interrupted. The slap following stung her heart more than her face. It shook something, the defense she had. The safe world was gone. She was facing her father. He was walking towards her, holding the iron. It was still red hot. Closer, closer, closer!

"One does not mention vermin in pleasant company," Kikyo replied. "Now, as I was saying, demon kind are the righteous owners of the world that little usurpers like you have stolen away… skittering around like cockroaches, spreading from one place to another, sullying it…"

For a few moments Kagome felt her airway grow tighter, but then it suddenly relaxed. Her eyes opened, blurry, and she saw Kikyo had noticed that she was being watched by a certain white haired hanyo, whose face was open and worried for one brief moment before returning to blasé. As Inuyasha moved on, getting thumped on the back, presumably in congratulations to the bull he'd killed and carried behind him… one that bore the unmistakable marks of branding…, Kikyo turned her attention back to Kagome.

"This is a class one violation, Higurashi, and you are lucky it is, because anything more would grant me the pleasure of removing your troublesome behavior from this facility. Understand that there are no more warnings after this." Miss Kikyo pushed Kagome back into the tree trunk, straightened her red coat, and headed back towards the back door. She greeted the minotaur standing there in a way that made him smile… but Kagome… she stayed against the tree.

How many things now… how many things had blown up under her feet? Sota… she'd earned her brother's loos of cogence… and she'd nearly lost her friends' lives by playing politics with the Yokai Republic. She'd brought those same people up to the middle of nowhere only to find themselves in more danger than before, the kind of danger you don't know, the kind you can't name. Maybe the Kwis were dangerous, maybe they weren't. Maybe their colleagues were pursuing what they said they were…maybe they weren't. Were there spies in the facility?

'_Maybe Inuyasha was someone trustworthy…,'_ She thought, slowly turning her gaze back at the doorway. '_Is he now…?'_

It stung. It burned, in her gullet and up her chest, rattling her ribs and clawing behind her sternum.

Inuyasha's hand… on Miss Kikyo's waist. Not her shoulder. Not her back. At her hip. The two walked together back into the darkness of the facility. Minotaur only. Looking her way. A face… a face… what did that face mean? It was hard to read emotion on a bull's face.

She slunk down to the bottom of the tree.

Silence, aside from the noise of the jungle.

There were thoughts, but no words.

Memories… predictions, but no sounds.

"…all so fast…," She muttered. She looked up slightly. Her neck hurt. The light had changed, more red. Still golden though. How could the light still be so happy, so luminous? Where were the damn rain clouds now?

"…Rain…," she whispered. Her hands slowly gripped the moss and straggly blades of grass that had rooted at the tree trunk. Her lungs heaved. Vomit? No, she wasn't going to vomit. She was going to explode. Her heart had had enough. Too much. It was too much, the light was too much.

"RAIN DAMMIT, FUCKING RAIN YOU SON OF A BITCH!" She screamed. The grass was ripped out of the ground.

"THIS ONE TIME WORK RIGHT! SIEMPRE, SIEMPRE HACES NADA PARA MI, YOU FUCKING UNIVERSE! UCHU WA KECHINA YARODA! DANGSIN-EUN NA-EGE AMUGEOSDO JUJI!..." Her hands wailed on the ground. She repeated it again.

"You give me NOTHING! Dame NADA! … Ataenai! A father that wants everything and hates it all, a mother who can't carry her own weight, a ticking time bomb of a brother, and a grandfather who's so fucking arrogant that he can't see that the rest of us miss dad too! Why do I still love him!? Why!... I read everything, I took care of everyone, I took the bullets, you even sent gae saeki after me para violarme, y un hombre que I worked so hard to get to know, that could freaking understand this same kind of pain, and then you fucking YANK him RIGHT out of my life in the cruelest way imaginable!... Okay, not the cruelest, but this is pretty damn high on the list of universal cruelty!

"So Universe, God, Inari, no cuidado como se llama, today be on my side for once and fucking RAIN!"

A crack of thunder, and it began to rain. Downpour really. Somehow, Kagome did not feel better. In fact, she felt wet and cold. She slowly turned her head skywards and gave the clouds the finger.

There was a sound behind her. It wasn't the rain, it was a cracked twig. Kagome jumped up and spun around, getting slapped in the face with her moist hair. She swiped it away and glared into the bushes. She swore she saw something for a moment, but the rain was crashing down so fast that her eyes kept getting filled with water. Or was it her own tears?

"Higurashi, get out of the rain!" She heard behind her. She spun around just to get smacked in the face with her own hair again. She groaned at herself, peeled her locks away, and saw Inuyasha glaring at her, standing under and umbrella.

"…Higurashi… I'm _Higurashi _now?" Kagome yelled over the rain. "The _HELL_ Inuyasha!"

"You may not refer to me as anything else other than Crown Prince of Iguto," He snapped. He tossed another umbrella at her feet, turned, and started walking towards the back entrance.

Kagome stood there for a moment, looked behind her at the bushes, and kicked the umbrella away, running up and shoving him to the side.

"The FU—BITCH!" Inuyasha roared.

"Yeah, how's it feel to be the one getting shoved for no good reason!" Kagome yelled. "_Crown Prince!?_ When we first met you hated having _ANY_ title! Hell, you didn't even _WANT_ to be associated with Iguto! And yeah, you had that stint in Polis where you kinda acted like this, but then you - - you, I mean, you were holding my hand just a week ago! What the hell's happened Inuyasha!"

"I have no reason to respond to vermin who can't manage a proper title." He said. Kagome paused again, stared at him, but hurried back next to him.

"Fine! Crown Prince Inuyasha! Just - - Just what is wrong with you!"

She ducked half-way through her sentence, making Inuyasha's attempt to spin and push her down fruitless. Kagome stood up a few paces away, somehow smiling in lieu of his shocked anger.

"You're pretty easy to predict, prince!" Kagome yelled. "Get to know anyone well enough and you can see right through them, get knocked down by them enough and you learn how to dodge!"

"You don't know me at all!" Inuyasha yelled back. "You're not my fucking mother!"

"I never said I was!" Kagome shouted. "All I've said is…," the rain was starting to lighten up, passing into a drizzle. "All I've said is you're not yourself."

"What do you even care?" Inuyasha spat back. But it was different. There was something in his voice, a tremor. "Why would someone like you care who I was?"

"Because I-!" Woah that was close. She almost told him that she… the drizzle was turning into a faint mist. Kagome looked up… the storm clouds were passing to the east quickly.

Something small inside her said, _'…tell him…now…'_

"Because I…"

"What? Because what?" He sounded irritated.

"Because I… dammit… this is supposed to be easy…," Kagome muttered. She closed her eyes. "I like you. I care about you a lot. I want to make you happy, and I want you to make me happy. I want to be able to hold your hand whenever I want. Because I'm proud of you, the real you, the one that lived through all the crap your family and situation put you through and came out from it still willing to entertain the possibility that there are some worthwhile things in life… and I don't want that to change… Love, I guess. Love is what it is."

She opened her eyes. He was still looking at her, irritated. "What, was that supposed to move me?"

The clawing inside her rib cage was back. It grabbed her heart in its teeth and ran away into the hole it left behind.

"N-no… not sup-p-posed—"

"You've got no respect for anyone… no, wait, you respect yourself. You're so fucking full of yourself, thinking you know everything, thinking you _know_ people, but you don't even know yourself, you don't even know your _place_.

"Go find some dick and you'll feel better," He finished, closing his umbrella. He walked briskly back into the facility, leaving Kagome once again in the golden sunshine, only this time very wet and ankle deep in mud.

And every atom of her wanting to die.

* * *

Inuyasha strutted down the hall, turned the corner once and walked down that hall as well. Wasn't everyday a girl professed sappy feelings towards a guy, was it? But eh, it was just a human girl, right? One that he knew…

"Hey, I know my place," Inuyasha muttered to himself. He passed through the cafeteria, grabbing a chocolate bar from the counter while the cooks protested. He ignored them and headed back the way he came, catching sight of Kikyo emerging out of the records room. She smiled sweetly at him, to which he smirked.

"I have to go up to the Anthropology office," She said. Normal people wouldn't be able to hear her from this distance, but Inuyasha wasn't normal now was he? He nodded once, and away she went towards one of the stairways.

Inuyasha went down the front hall now, wondering how he wanted to spend his time. Sneering at the open wiring in the walls of part of the nurse's ward, he decided that going to the rec room would be at least somewhat entertaining. But when he arrived he turned on his heel and tried to run, but a certain Floridian snatched his hair.

"INUYASHA!" Sango screamed, knocking him in the head with a dictionary from the feeling of it.

"THE FUCK! Someone get this bitch off me!"

"Whoa, dude, that's not okay!" Miroku yelled, stepping up in front of him.

"Hunting!? Just to kill things!?" Sango yelled. "And lets not even mention all the ways you've hurt Kagome this week, or all the other people you've shoved around-!"

"Damn woman, you're gonna make me go deaf!" Inuyasha yelled over her, placing his hands over his ears. One of his hunting buddies was also in the rec room; the fox-demon came over, shoving some other hanyo out of the way and yanked Sango off Inuyasha by grabbing her hair.

"Whoa, jack-ass, the fuck is wrong with you!" Regan yelled, coming up behind the demon and ramming him into the wall. Some of the other hanyo came up behind Sango and helped her up, a few of them coming up to surround the hunter and the Prince.

"Heh, bunch of small fry wanting to get cooked it looks like," The demon said cockily.

"Kraig, a million bees can still kill a dragon," Inuyasha advised.

"Not if the dragon is bad ass enough," Kraig the fox demon said, cracking his knuckles at the hanyo and humans in front of him, all of which took an unconscious step back. "Yeah, you know who's got the power, don't ya? Don't you all?"

"This is going to hell very quickly," Miroku breathed.

"We all do!" Regan yelled, getting a number of affirmative yells from the room. "You guys have been like fucking ass holes ever since _he_ showed up!" He jerked his head at the crown Prince, who laughed. "Not all demons, just some of you, acting like you're better than everyone else—"

"'Cause we are!" Kraig cheered. Another demon nearby whooped, as did Inuyasha. But the hanyo suddenly felt Miroku's hand on his elbow.

"It isn't… Not right, Inuyasha, this, this is all wrong… all sand castle. Sand, sand, sand, hour glass, hour, hour…"

"Miroku…?" Sango asked, coming around the half-demon with a frown on her face. "Miroku, you're not making any sense."

"Sense, yes sense, pence, wence, kents, lents, lent it once, so cold, so salty, salty air, salty sea…" He breathed deep, but it was strained. He let go of Inuyasha's arm, stumbled back and hit the wall, back straight. Regan and Kraig began yelling behind Sango and Inuyasha, who stared at the professor.

Miroku looked directly at Sango. "Wife, my love, it is time. The syringe please, if you ple—"

His jaw locked, somewhat open. The tremors started in his chest, like trying to breath a thousand times a minute, but then the crotch of Miroku's pants turned wet, urine slipping down on the floor, and Miroku collapsed on the ground, twisting into a fetal position as his arms and legs flailed as if being electrocuted. Sango fell to the ground and grabbed one of his arms, trying to keep it from getting tangled in a nearby electrical wire. "MIROKU! STAY WITH ME, MIROKU! GOD - - INUYASHA DON'T STAND THERE GET HELP!"

An image ran through Inuyasha's mind. He was young, looking through the wooden hut Miroku and his father lived in. The black haired boy was curled up and trashing in his father's lap as the older tried to rock his child. This was the same…

"INUYASHA!" Sango screamed. Inuyasha came to - - blood was spilling out of Miroku's mouth, scarlet specks on Sango's terrified face. His face was paling fast. The hanyo bolted through the crowd of fighting demons and half demons, running for the nurse's ward.

* * *

She was wandering… that was all there was left to do. Kagome looked up above her, and realized she was underneath her and Sango's room. She studied the ground in front of her… dried blood from where the man died over a week ago. Somehow the sporadic rains hadn't washed it all away. Kagome bent down and put her fingers on the place of the man's death… what was the Kwis's name? Was he like the girl in the photos, the one with features so similar to Kagome's family?

A twig snapped behind her.

Kagome whirled around and stared into the jungle. Leaves rustled. Screeches of birds, the clatter of small mammals high above in the trees. Distant running water. Otherwise silence. Kagome slowly closed her eyes, letting the gentle wind dry the wetness on her face. Her crying has left her exhausted… her room was nearby, maybe she should go up and sleep.

She opened her eyes, and there she was, a kwis girl. Her skin was grayish blue, with a hue of pink shining through her under arms and the interior of her legs. Most of the girl's black hair was shaved aside from a mohawk. Like the girl in the photos, this one's eyes had the extra flap of skin over her eyes, a trait born into the people of East Asia.

"Lal," the girl said, nodding her head once.

Kagome frowned. She had no idea what 'lal' meant; she'd been looking over the Kwis language books but why, why, oh dunder-head, hadn't she actually studied any of it!? If anything Regan said was true using demon tongue pissed the Kwis off, as did English, so…

"Buenas," Kagome eventually said. Neither Japanese or English – Spanish instead.

"Boo-wenas?" The girl asked with a tilt of her head. "Wemalook mar das?"

"…No entiendo que dices… bueno, creo que piensas lo mismo (I have no idea what you're saying… which is probably what you just said)," Kagome said quietly. She looked right into the girl's eyes, pressed her hand on her own chest, and said. "Kagome."

"Ka-go-me…," the girl said. She raised her eyebrows and bowed her head a bit. "Moolek ccha Kagome soayk… moolek len Neout-Lay soayk… lo…," She pressed a hand on her mouth, as Kagome had placed hers on her heart. "Neout-Lay."

Kagome slowly opened her hand, palm down, and pointed it to the girl. "Neout-Lay," and then to herself, "Kagome."

The girl gave a little loll of her head. "Lana… Neout-Lay."

Kagome smiled and nodded once. "Sí… Kagome."

Neout-Lay peered at Kagome, jerkily nodded her head, and said. "Siii..."

Kagome smiled a little wider and let her head go in a circle. "Lanah," she said, figuring must mean yes, just as 'sí'. Neout-Lay smiled in return, but snapped her gaze up to one of the windows. She slipped backwards into the underbrush, and turned her gaze to Kagome. Neout-Lay jerked her head towards the hill with the tallest trees several times, and bolted for them.

Kagome stood there quietly, but a moment later she heard yelling from somewhere inside the facility. Did someone see Kagome out here? Or the Kwis girl? What if she was caught, either one of them?… it was only as Kagome was tearing through the underbrush and vines that her thoughts formed words, telling her that she could never learn anything locked up in someone else's castle. Another person's castle made of sand. The research facility; the early university in Japan; her father's home; Polis; whatever world Inuyasha came from, each one was a sand castle, a creation of people, unnatural order placed upon the crumbly, erodible moral reality. She couldn't stand any of it anymore - - all was worthless. All was empty.

Something tore at Kagome; she looked down to see her lab-coat snagged on a bush branch. With a smile she tugged the ugly thing off her, tossed it into a bed of flowers nearby, and pushed up the hill, catching sight of Neout-Lay up ahead. The Kwis girl was watching Kagome with a grin, and started laughing as a bang rang out from the direction of the facility. There were shouts, and a knife whizzed by her head; Kagome didn't look back. She jumped and clung to the side of a small cliff, grabbing vines to pull herself up, looking up and finding Neout-Lay pulling the vines too. The Kwis girl had Kagome's hand a moment later, took her wrist, and ran headlong into the jungle.

They did not see the explosion on the third floor behind them. They did not see the hundred men from the lowland river tribe swarming around the compound. They ran, their problems left at the foot of the forest, left to be unknown, maybe for all time.

* * *

...my goodness, so much violence in this chapter...

What was Kagome's flaw?

She ran away.

…So yeah, this is the real low point/epic drama point of the story. But when you're at the bottom of the barrel, the only way to go is up.

…seriously, it does get better after this.

Chapter Preview:

Miroku confronts Inuyasha.

Kagome learns about Kwis. Not THE Kwis, just Kwis.

Sango realizes her own peril.

Paak makes an appearance.

And the world? It keeps spinning, arranging the stage for a new act in this tale.


	18. Chapter 16

Well guys, its hump day. Why've I been gone so long? Well, for one, I moved to Washington D.C., started grad school and an internship. And the winter holiday season?... that is a time that forever on will be known as Time of Wasps. Why? Because the side of my family that is made up of WASPS was particularly waspish this year. Go figure.

Anyhow, my time to write has been completely restructured. I've decided that every Wednesday I am going to update with a chapter, or a chapter chunk, or just a scene of some sort for you wonderful, wonderful readers. I feel bad about leaving you all hanging at the end of the last chapter (well, not really), but hopefully this change will let us all enjoy this story's development much more.

So… here we go. Once again, please forgive my spelling and grammar errors, I am a sleep deprived grad student now with tiny bits of time to write and edit this thing.

* * *

Ch 16

* * *

Sango stared down at the clipboard in her hands. At the top it read:

_For official archives, we request a full explanation of the reasons for why you arrived at Sano Omi Capital Hospital. Please be concise and accurate. For confidentiality, hospital records will not be shared with Domestic Protection Force (D.P.F.)._

D.P.F. … that sounded like some run around name for police. Or maybe secret police. She looked over at the unconscious Miroku… pale as bones. A machine beeped out his heart rate, while another pushed against his lungs to make him breathe. Sango looked behind her, over the little wall and through the glass, at Regan as he spoke with a doctor. His face was still scarred, but it was healing quickly.

She looked back at the paper before her. How could such a simple request be so difficult to respond to? What should she write, what shouldn't she include… this was something Kagome should be handling, but…

Sango sat back in her chair, closed her eyes. Focus…

Slowly, she revisited all that had transpired in the last two days.

* * *

The blast – what the hell!? Sango covered Miroku's writhing body with her own, just in time for searing heat to shoot through the hallway, sending papers and dirt flying. She pressed her head to his, his muttering slowly dying down. She felt his pulse; dropping from the sprint it had a minute before. It slowed, but did not stop, only calmed.

More roaring. Sango looked up, and though it was far she could just make out people running around outside, beyond the doorless portal. But they were getting bigger, and the sound was getting louder, almost as loud as the yelling demons, humans, and those in between a few meters away. She pushed herself up, flinching when a panel from the ceiling collapsed in front of her, sending electrical wires and sparks down too. Another moment - - they were men, the people outside. They were blue. Mostly naked. Carrying weapons. Screaming.

"Kwis… Hey! Demon people!" Sango yelled. She jumped up and grabbed one of the half-demons nearby and kicked the knee of a demon to get her attention. They snarled at Sango but she pointed down the hall; their faces paled.

"KWIS! KWIS ARE ATTACKING!"

The warning swarmed through the crowd, but Sango didn't stop to watch. She ran back to Miroku, grabbed his arms and threw them over her shoulders. She picked up his legs – god he was heavy – and started running.

"Tad-alæc kudk! Tad-alæc kudk!" She heard behind her. It did not sound friendly. Sango pushed and kicked her way through the people running to the hoard and those running from it, heading towards the second story armory. She might not be able to get Miroku to the medical care he needs, but she could at least get him somewhere safe.

She found one of the staircases, next to the mess hall. She started climbing, was knocked to the far wall by another explosion. Gray dust in her eyes, a scream far above her, roar of fire. Sango wiped powderized wall off her face, breathed in, felt the sting of charcoal in her lungs, coughed it out. She found Miroku lying next to her groaning, with a piece of copper tubing sticking out of his leg.

Everything changed in that moment: Sango was now in a warzone and was going to follow protocol. First up – get the wounded out after surveying the area. She wiped at her eyes again and saw that if she had gotten to the steps a moment later than she had then she would have been hit by part of the kitchen stove and propane tank. It was the tank's tubing that had gotten Miroku.

The second story wouldn't be structurally sound for long, she predicted, but she'd have to find another way out. Sango grabbed Miroku's urine stained pants leg, ripped it off, and tied a tourniquet above his wound. He was back up on her shoulders and back a moment later, and she bolted for the armory. Which was locked.

"Aw Jesus, Mary, Joseph," Sango muttered, setting Miroku down as gently as she could. She wiped more dust out of her eyes and coughed it out of her lungs before running the door. And bouncing off it like a ball, cursing as she tumbled to the floor. She kicked at it, near the knob, but it was taking too much time: Miroku wouldn't be able to take much more moving around, if he'd survived her last relocation. What a moment to wish for marine training instead of flying planes.

"Miroku, Miroku, you with me?" She asked, patting his face. "Hey! Hey! C'mon, stay awake for me! You there?"

"…San…," His eyes were closed, but his mouth moved. "M'sorry…"

"No no no! Don't be saying sorry for nothin'!" She hissed back. "I need to go get plum wine, got it? You stay right here - - and keep this leg up!" She ripped off her lab coat and stuffed it under his injured leg.

"M'sorry… will you bear my child, Sango? Will you please…?"

She stared, then glared, then stepped back. "PLUM WINE, YOU IDIOT! PLUM WINE, PLUM - - Oh screw it!" She yelled, running down the hall towards another stairway.

"Me! Screw me!" She heard him call with a whimper. She didn't have enough blood in her body to power both the "Get out of here intact" part of the brain and the "KICK OFF HIS HEAD" part.

Kagome. Sango ran for the anthropology office… but she stopped running halfway down the hall. No. Two bodies on the side of the hall. Someone's arm left in the middle. Fire. The gaping hole.

The fire was too loud. Sango didn't hear herself scream.

The entire office was gone.

The entire corner of the building was gone.

This was the first blast.

The bodies.

Sango ran over to them - - both women! She pulled one off the first.

"Kikyo…" Sango breathed. Miss Kikyo was beneath the first woman, who started. The facility manager had a bleeding head wound, but otherwise seemed fine, but the other girl was shaking uncontrollably.

"HEY! WE GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE!" Kagome is dead. "C'MON, I NEED YOU TO BE BRAVE!"

The girl was crying. Kagome is dead. Her glasses were broken. Kagome is dead. Sango pulled the girl up to her feet. Kagome is dead.

"Rin, it's okay…" Kikyo muttered. Sango turned back to her. Kagome is dead.

"CAN YOU STAND?" Sango yelled.

"Some help… would be appreciated…," The woman said, reaching up and feeling her head. Staring at the blood.

Sango stared at the fire. No, she had to go. She helped Kikyo to her feet first, then Rin, and ushered them down the hall towards the stairway. She paused a flick of a moment, the moment in a battle where your heart screams in pain and confusion, choking you to turn around and look for the person who was left behind. '_Don't let me have any more moments like this, God, please…_'

Down the stairs.

Miroku still there.

Leave the girls with him. Run down the hall, break open door to bedroom. Much lighter door this time.

Sango felt fire on her face. It wasn't really there. She didn't know. Her hands reached under her pillow, pulled out her gun, but it felt like her body wasn't hers. _Her_ body was crying, screaming - - how'd it get to this? What was this worth, the death of a sister, a friend - -

She grabbed her box of ammunition from the set of drawers. Loaded up the gun, shoved the contents of the box into her pockets, ran back to Miroku. What's that rumble - - no, don't look, run!

Sango lunged as the ground beneath her screamed and collapses, sending wire whipping through the air like razor bladed hair, smoke and ash. Tiles kept slipping beneath her, legs dangling off in the air. She could see him. Able to talk, talking to the girls.

"GET HIM OUT OF HERE, TO INUYASHA, GET OUT OF HERE, OUT OF HERE!" She yelled at them. Miroku started to trash as Sango looked away. Maybe this was where she died too? She just had to make sure Miroku was okay, then maybe - - maybe the afterlife would be nice enough to deliver her to her father? To her brother? Maybe even a kinder version of her mother?  
Sango laughed at herself, spitting out grit, hands clamped on the few bits of linoleum on the second floor that hadn't given up on her.

"Life's never been that nice to me, why would the afterlife be… different!" She shoved herself up, rolled over. She could see the sky, the perfect clouds, peach and white against a cerulean sky. Below that were the wires, pipes, fragments of wall and door from the third floor. And of course what was once the ceiling… she gathered her breath and flipped over and jogged down the hall. The stairway she'd come up - - it wasn't even worth bothering looking at as an escape. She passed the blood stain from where Miroku had been…

"…Where'd they go?" Sango asked herself, words lost in the fire. They had just been here. She'd told them to get him out of there, but…

She ran around the corner and down that hallway, staying low to keep out of the smoke. At the end of the hall she found another stairwell and hurried down to find herself just beyond the nurse's ward. Wasn't the ward in another part of the complex?- - No, not the time. The screams of battle echoed off the walls Sango jumped over the bodies piled in front of the stairs, some blue and others not, and rushed down the rest of the way to the nurse's station.

The room was cluttered with people, and demons in various animal forms, bleeding and secreting the fluids of their body all over the floor. For a moment Sango was going to be sick, but her coping technique from basic training kicked in: '_Blood is mostly water, iron, sugar, and carbon dioxide. It is a mix of these four things and nothing more. You can deal with a smoothie. Deal with this.'_

She saw the white hair and ears poke out of the crowd. Sango pushed through the groaning bodies and frantic nurse's aides until she got to Inuyasha, finding him pinning Miroku on the nurse's desk as he screamed in pain. She didn't understand why until she heard a wet pop from Miroku's lower body.

"You can do this man—see, its out, that's it, you're the MAN Miroku, you keep this up, you've got balls of steel man!" Inuyasha yelled at his friend.

The main nurse tossed the bloody copper tube into a heap of similar shrapnel in the corner of the building. "I can close the wound, but it won't stay closed unless we can stop the seizures! He'll last for several hours though - - get one of the cars and get him to the closest hospital! I can't deal with brain trauma here!"

The head nurse ran off somewhere else, and it was then that Sango saw Miss Kikyo and the woman named Rin. The latter was huddled in a corner, clutching her head and rocking back and forth. The former stared at the bloody tourniquet above the hole in Miroku's calf. She slowly looked up to Sango and gave a grim smile.

The nurse reappeared with a needle, thread, gauze, and a match-box.

"The Kwis are on the run!" Sango heard someone shout from the doorway. "They're pulling back, they're pulling back!"

There were a few cheers, but mostly more groans and screaming.

"You!" The nurse yelled at Sango. "Hold his legs!"

Sango reached down immediately and steeled herself against the table. The woman lit a match, held the needle over the flame for a few moments, and dived into Miroku's leg without warning. The scream was louder than the ones Sango had heard in the South American War, even when her buddies had lost limbs during the mass plane ejection her squadron had to take. Sango's face was planted straight above the hole, and she saw the thread pull on his skin, felt Miroku's legs writhe against her. Both sides took the nurse one minute in total, but the professor was sobbing and screaming by the end of it. Inuyasha was still yelling at him to stay strong, but Sango saw Miroku couldn't hear him anymore: his legs weren't shaking out of pain.

"Inuyasha, get a car!" Sango yelled at him.

"What!? No, a prince isn't going to—!"

"REGAN!" Sango screamed across the crowd. The tall half demon's head popped up from across the room, half of his face marred by a deep gash and blackened by burns. "Get me a car! We need to get to a hospital!"

"But the closest one in Sani Omi, that's hours!" He yelled back, somehow cool and without pain.

"He'll last that long, but we have to go now! Bring it to that side opening by the staircase!" Sango replied. Regan looked at the nurse once, then climbed up the wall like a spider to the main door and out.

"Ms. Taijiya," Kikyo's cool voice sounded through the violence. "In the future do not make inappropriate requests of our royal—"

"Oh shut the FUCK UP you tight-ass bitch!" Sango screamed. A moment later a firm grip was on her wrist, even before Kikyo's face could sharpen. Sango glared at Inuyasha, unafraid of his red eyes.

"Get out of the way—GET OUT OF THE WAY!" She shoved him off, reaching over and checking Miroku's pulse. Already slowing - - the seizure was passing much faster than the first one. "You've killed one sister of mine you're not taking anyone else with your ass-headedness!

"And don't even think about it!" Sango snapped as Kikyo moved to speak. "I don't give a fuck about royal blood, just the blood on someone's hands!"

Sango heaved Miroku onto her shoulders, picked his hips onto the back of her own, and got her hands under his legs. She started pushing through the crowd, but Inuyasha leapt in front of her with a glare.

"Kagome, you mother-fucking bastard!" Sango yelled at him. She could see his face just long enough to see shock starting to spread over him, but then she was gone, through the bodies and the screaming, back out into the hallway. Most of the yelling echoes had stopped, just the sound of fire, something crumbling, and a muted shout for help. Was silence worse than the noise?

Seven bodies: six blue, one not, on her way to the meeting place with Regan. She huffed outside, starting to feel adrenaline drain out of her blood, but got Miroku into the back seat before her legs gave out. As Regan revved the car Sango pulled herself up and into the back of the vehicle, but that was it, her legs couldn't even keep her sitting up straight.

A jolt, the sound of flying gravel, and Sango heard the rush of trees flying by the windows. She watched Miroku, moaning, trying to reach down to hold his leg. He was covered in dirt, piss, blood… what else. Sango used her arms to push up into the seat next to him as he starting quivering again.

_Kagome is dead._

"What's happening back there?" Regan yelled.

Sango squeezed Miroku's shaking body hard against her own. "I don't know… I don't know…"

* * *

It didn't seem necessary to write down the hours Sango had cried next to Miroku's bed, or the many more spent staring, at nothing really. She begged him not to leave her alone on this planet: that detail seemed superfluous too. Not just because the medical staff didn't need to know it, but also because she was alone. Her father was dead, as was her estranged mother, and her darling little brother. Her commanding officer had died right in front of her. She couldn't communicate with anyone from her old air-force crew. Now the only person who was a pillar in her life, who somehow manages to figure out the confusing truths of this planet was…

"…go-…," She couldn't say it. Gone, couldn't do it. Sango had learned to say it for her comrades who had died during their time in Chile, for her childhood friends back in Florida, even for her family. But not Kagome, not yet. She was dead, but not gone yet. The ways that girl had touched Sango's weren't done with her. Sango rose out of her seat, walked out into the noisy nurse's station, and pushed the clipboard across the counter. Why did hospital counters all have to be green, that kind of green the world reserves for decomposition? Sango turned and walked back towards the hospital room.

"Woah, hey," It was Regan; he'd caught her arm. She paused, looked over at him. "There's a shower you can use down that way if you wanna. You really look like a wreck."

"Pleasure to know it," she replied, using her free hand to peel Regan's fingers off her.

"I didn't mean it like _that_,"

"No, but that's how I took it. Bite me if you don't like it," and she went back into the room.

* * *

It was rare that Sango woke up inside a dream. But here she was - - the world was black, she was formless. Sango wondered, '_Is this what death is like? Emptiness… no joy, no sadness, no pain, no comfort…'_

'_Not exactly_,' A high, nasal voice said behind her.

Sango spun around, and there, sitting on a table in the blackness, was a red fox… staring at her.

'_What's going on here?'_ Sango thought.

'_Veeeerrrry good question, though I'm not at liberty to say," The fox said. 'Did Kagome ever mention someone named Paak?'_

_If Sango could have blinked at the strangeness, she would have. Instead she said, 'WHAT THE FUCK A TALKING ANIMAL!?'_

'_Ah. No then. Perfect. My name is Paak, and from what I gather,'_ The fox pressed a paw over to his right. A metallic ching rang out, and a piece of paper popped out of an invisible typewriter. '_You are Sango Taijiya, yes?'_

'_This is not possible… this is not fucking possible…_,' Sango's thoughts echoed. The fox frowned… or tried to anyway.

'_You're in a DREAM, Sango, technically anything's possible in the creative folds of your mind.'_

'_No its not – dreams' primary function according to Jungian theory is to resolve traumatic experiences and—'_

'_Yeah, I don't care. Listen sassy-pants, I have a message for you from Inari, and—'_

'_From who? Who is Inari?'_

Paak glowered. '_How did Kagome wind up becoming friends with you…? Yes, a v-e-r-y i-m-p-o-r-t-a-n—'_

'_If you have a message just say it!' _Sango's voice shook the invisible typewriter off the invisible table, letting out an invisible clunk, followed by the sound of a nuclear explosion. A meter beneath where Paak sat, a bright green flower stalk pushed upwards, arching once before forming small buds. The buds broke open, revealing white orchids.

Paak looked down at the flower quietly for a moment, and without moving said, '_This is a very strange mind I've wandered into._'

'_The orchids…'_ Sango whispered. The black flew away in a blast, showing the fast-forwarded version of her memory, seeing her mother yelling at her father while Kohaku sobbed in the corner, her mother holding up the Bible, zooming to watching her car shrink down the road with the cat and boxes, Sango finding herself in the backyard garden overlooking the ocean. The memory slowed. The sun was setting behind the house, leaving the ocean sky an unromantic, murky violet. The orchids Mr. Taijiya grew fluttered in the sea breeze, naturally white but tinted honey hues by the lingering sunlight. Sango had been crying, but the orchids were there. They'd always been there, before the troubles, before she'd joined started basic training, before her mother left…

The memory froze, then faded back to black. Paak looked down at the orchid. It burst into flames, sending the fox screeching and to the edge of the table. The fire quickly devoured the small plant, leaving only ash.

'_Hunh…_' Paak said. Silence hung like miasma. He cleaned off the top of his paws, strutted back to the center of the invisible table, and looked at Sango dead on. '_Inari asks you not to return to the research facility in the Kwislands. The momentum is already underway, and returning will cause the deaths of five people who otherwise do not have to die.'_

'_I… what?'_

'_Don't go back to the north…. Please, I suppose.'_ Paak said begrudgingly. He popped a key on the invisible typewriter, and the paper vanished with a slurping sound. Paak lifted a tufty eyebrow and shook his head. '_A very strange mind…_'

The fox got up, turned, and started walking away. Sango's panicked breathing filled the darkness. '_W-wait! I don't understand, I… I'm just supposed to trust you? This? A dream?! What is really going on!? Am I insane!?'_

The fox sighed. '_No, you're not insane, though the symbols and means of your brain does leave one to wonder… Trust is wisest here. Kagome could do it, you can do it too."_

"_But how do you know Kagome! What does she have to - - What the hell is going on!?"_

'_Not my problem, sassy-pants. Go wake up already, someone's waiting for you.'_ He kept walking, getting smaller too fast.

'_Wait! I'm so confused!—Please, I'll be polite, just please don't leave me alone!'_

He was gone.

The empty blackness…

'…_I… can't do this on my own!… please… daddy… someone… please! Please come back!'_

Her eyes snapped open, but it was so bright! Sound overwhelmed her ears, but after a few moments she picked out.

"…told you she was a wreck."

"Never-mind that. Sango, wake up, you're okay, you're not alone, you're okay!"

Her eyes focused, hazy at first. She stuck her hands out and swallowed hard at her dry mouth. Her hands found a face, and hair, and she tried to figure out who it was, someone who smelled familiar, sounded—

It was Miroku's face. His springy black hair stuck to his forehead, between her fingers. His dark brown eyes, hidden by his worried frown, that was relaxing into a relieved smile. "Whew… you talk in your sleep like no other, Sango."

Sango looked down at the floor they were sitting on. Miroku was clothed in his hospital smock, slightly thinner than before, but otherwise good.

She wasn't alone.

"What were you dreaming about? What couldn't you do alone?" Miroku asked. She slowly looked back up at him, grabbed the collar of his smock and pulled him into her hug. She didn't cry or sob, but her tears did moisten his shoulder.

"Thank you…" Sango whispered. "Thank you for coming back Miroku…"

"Hey now, hey, what's this all about? I was just out for a little bit, it's nothing to—"

"Dude, you were out for over a week," Regan chimed in from somewhere else in the room.

"What?!... well THAT'S unusual… but it's okay Sango, we're all here for you, its okay."

'_He doesn't know_…' She realized.

"No… Kagome's dead. Inuyasha probably is too."

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa, hold on- -," Miroku warned, pushing Sango away to look at her, but his look of disbelief faded when he saw hers. She felt defeated, too weary for sadness anymore, and supposed that's what he saw on her face. Miroku's jaw tensed. He looked over to Regan, received a slow shake of the head, and turned back to Sango. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. His face started to scrunch up in the way Sango knew too well, the face her brother made when their mother cursed him out as an abomination in the face of God.

But Miroku didn't push her away to cry in the corner. He pulled Sango close to him… it started as a hissing sigh, like accidently slicing a finger on a sharp edge. But his breathing roughened, he gulped for air, did so again, and then his voice slipped into the tears as a whimper. Sango put her head back on his shoulder and pressed her hands against his shoulder blades.

"I can't…" came out of his throat, but he couldn't finish whatever it was. Sango didn't press it.

* * *

"Lupus is an autoimmune disease. Basically, my immune system regularly confuses my own body with viruses or bacteria. Usually that just means I get aches an pains in my joints since the effects are stronger in places with a lot of capillaries, but sometimes… larger organs are attacked."

"…and in this case it was your brain," Sango added.

"Yes…," Miroku said, sitting next to her on the hospital bed.

Sango nodded slowly. "Is there a cure?"

"No…" Miroku replied. "It, ah, it will likely kill me one day. But there are lots of medications that I can take to slow it down, reduce the damage done, you know… so I'll probably have a pretty good life."

Sango nodded again. "And how long have you known you have Lupus?"

Miroku sighed in memory. "Since I was a kid. I used to have a lot of seizures, amongst other things, and eventually my father took me to a doctor. Actually, that was just a little bit before he died… of the same thing, actually. He just never got treated."

"I didn't know your dad died like that…" Sango said softly.

"Well, there hasn't really been a reason for me to talk about it," Miroku replied.

"…How has this affected your life?" She asked.

"Sometimes I have to go on leave from work to keep things in check, like right now. I'm officially on sabbatical, but my employers at the university know that I'm in the middle of a flare up. Sometimes I have to go to the hospital, make sure that I don't run out of drugs like I did this time—"

"No, I mean… how has this affected _you_? As a person?"

"Ahh…" Miroku paused. "…I can't say I know what life is like for anyone else, so I don't really—"

"Don't give me that answer. You know that this has changed how you look at life. Your values and pursuits in life are different than other people our age, Miroku."

"Oh? What makes you say that?" Miroku slurred.

"Why were you in such a hurry to have _two_ doctorates?" Sango replied. Miroku's grin of three seconds died. He sat back, looking down at his feet.

"I don't really know…," he said.

"Try," Sango said. Miroku kept leaning back until he was laying across the bed, staring at the ceiling.

"I don't know… maybe… maybe I'm more driven. Life could end any day for me, so why should I miss any of it? Why should I worry about any of it? Yeah, I rushed through my schooling to become an expert in things I love studying… and to get prestige I think. And… hunh…"

"What?"

"I don't think I've ever been in a real relationship… like, a _romantic_ relationship," he said.

"_That_ doesn't surprise me," Sango chuckled.

"Hey, I'm kinda emotionally vulnerable here, care to be a bit less caustic?" Miroku replied with a frown.

Sango flicked his arm. "I'm teasing, professor… but I'll stop. Go on."

Miroku raised an eyebrow, but settled back into staring at the ceiling. "I guess… why should I try to get involved with someone? I'm always traveling for research, or in the hospital for stuff, or… waiting for death to take me… and sex is nice in and of itself. Why push for something like a relationship, something that's just going to hurt in the end, however that end comes about?"

"It's less lonely, for one," Sango replied.

"…You know I was being rhetorical with my questions, right?" Miroku asked.

"Yeah, but I don't care, I'm responding to them anyway," Sango said. "Don't forget that life and death in the blink of an eye is something I've faced too, but really everyone does. What the shuttle I had been piloted landed _in_ the city of Prialata instead of the harbor? Who knows how many people would have died. And some relationships end, some don't… one of the things about growing up is learning how to deal with that pain and letting yourself love again. Yeah, it hurts, but if you try to avoid all the pain or try to numb it, then you're numbing yourself to all your emotions - - you can't selectively numb feelings, the brain doesn't work that way."

"Maybe not a woman's mind, but a man's mind is different," Miroku said.

"…You're lucky you're in the hospital already or I'd pummel you for that," Sango glowered. "And for your information, I'm not talking about emotion during sex - - that has to do with testosterone levels, not emotional numbing. Lots of women enjoy sex just for pleasure like men, and they tend to have higher testosterone levels than average."

"How do you know?" Miroku asked.

"Psychological studies from Earth. And, I repeat, _military_. I worked with men and women, and some of those women _really_ got around."

"Oh yeah? What were they—"

"You know I'm not going to answer any sex driven question, so why ask?" Sango quipped.

"Worth a shot."

"Anyway… the point is that just because sex provides physical pleasure doesn't mean that those people who engage in sex for physical pleasure have no needs for intimacy. Of course they do - - loneliness is one of the harshest things anyone can feel. It just means that sex may fulfill those desires for intimacy, or it may not. Such a person is just more flexible is all." Sango said. The room was silent for a moment. She looked over to Miroku, who looked contemplative. "What?"

"…You've never talked with me about anything like this before… or in this manner before…"

Sango looked past him to the bed linens, feeling the age beneath her eyes. "I only talk openly with friends… and… I don't think I've been fair to you.

"Men… well, you know why I don't do well with men, especially those who are… too forward. But…," She closed her eyes. "Not all men are evil. I don't want to hold on to this hatred anymore because… it pushes people away, and people who are meaningful, who are uplifting, who are caring… sometimes those people are men. And I don't think I can do this thing called life without people like that."

"So… I'm a friend then?" Miroku asked.

"As long as you don't run out of your medication again, yes," Sango replied.

Days passed slowly. Miroku slowly gained back the weight that atrophied off him during his 'nap of great proportions' as he called it. Sango busied herself by trying to read, failing, and talking to Miroku more. She learned his favorite food was beans, especially after they had been boiled, mashed, and the fried in crispy pancakes. She also learned of a game called Sojo, which involved a bunch of lines and boxes on a piece of paper. It made no sense, but Miroku never tired of trying to explain it to her, especially using Regan as a gaming dummy.

Miroku learned Sango's favorite colors were orange and dark violet, and he picked up that one of her ways to dealing with stress was exercise: when they tired of talking, he would take up a book and sit next to his room's window and watch Sango run laps around the hospital. But it was as Regan left him at the front steps on the night of their departure that Miroku discovered something else. Sango had gone ahead of them and was going to run laps around the building, it being late at night and thus deserted. The sun hung low in the sky, but kept the air golden and red, and he was quite content just standing there, willing away the painful thoughts of his friends' deaths. But then he heard her singing beyond the door.

"Willow on the beach…

Why… don't… you see… me…

Waves pulling on the sand…

Breaking down, two, then three…

Winter winds in the sky…

Why is it cold you choose to be?

"Whisper… the coming light!

Whisper… the spring delight!

Whimper, the drowning night,

Take it all home… take it all home…"

Miroku pushed one of the hospital doors open, using his new cane so he didn't have to lean on it. She wasn't a magnificent singer, but vibrato rang in her voice, and her pitch rarely missed. Peeking through the door, he saw her sitting on the ground, leaning against one of the portico's stone pillars. She had a frowning stare, trying to remember something.

"Willow in the heat…

Branches blowing, ever free…

Waves washing both my hands…

Gentle kisses from the sea…

Summer gales in my eye…

Where is your promised key?

"Whisper… the coming light!

Whisper… the spring delight!

Whimper, the drowning night,

Take it all home… take it all home…"

Miroku carefully stepped outside, watching Sango intently, hoping she neither heard nor saw him. She closed her eyes and let her head drop, though it bobbed in tempo with the beat of the song… the rhythm of slow walking, or a weak heart. But it quickened as she approached the bridge.

"Season rise, season fall,

Can you care a bit at all

About the stupid roaring pain

You've planted in my brain?

Tempt me with me with pleasure

With no regard to whether

It… can weather… me…

"Sun rise…

Moon fall…

But ignore…

My call…

To slow it all down…

Touch back to ground…

So I can take… it all… home…..

All… back… home…"

"Willow, take a seat…

And listen to my tale…

Waves, breaking down the grand…

Delivering time's pounding mail…

Air, soothing as I cry…

Saying its okay to fail

To take it all home… I can't take my life home…

No I can't take it home…"

Her voice haunted him. After the bridge Sango's voice grew, blasting into the hospital parking lot, and he could almost feel it like a sheet of ripped silk wrapping around him. In the last few lines of the song her voice fell away again, back to its average level, but he'd seen that she was more than that. He didn't think about how loud his sigh would be, or that she'd jump, flip over, and scramble up behind the pillar.

"Whoa! Hey, hey it's just me!" Miroku said, taking a weak step towards the pillar. All he heard was the wind, at least for a few moments.

"Were you…? How long were you-?"

"I stepped outside after the first chorus," He said.

Sango was quiet again, though she slowly stepped out from behind the pillar. "…Where's Regan?"

"Getting the keys for the van back from archives," Miroku said. "What… was that song?"

"Nothing… but you're not going to let me get away with that…," Sango said to herself, shaking her head. She crossed her arms before saying. "I… don't really know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"Well… I just put out there what felt right. In my head."

"You mean… you made that entire song up? Right now? All of it?"

Sango nodded slowly.

"Holy crap, that's amazing!" Miroku shouted.

"…thanks," Sango said sullenly.

"…What? That was a compliment!"

"An undeserved one. The song is sad… its about… all this crazy. About being unable to slow time, to stop loosing important things or people or ideas… I'm so sad from all of this…"

"It's not a bad thing to be sad… weren't you just telling me not to be selective with emotions a few days ago?" He smiled at her kindly. "Its not the sadness that the issue, its how we handle it… _that's_ where things can go awry."

"Hey… Got the keys," Regan announced after bounding out the front door, which swung and knocked Miroku in the back of the head. He threw out his cane and tried to lean on it, but couldn't hold it. Instead he twirled before smacking onto the concrete.

Sango and Regan dove to help him up as he started shaking, but when he was facing them they saw he was laughing. After a moment Regan started laughing too. Sango looked between the two, and for a moment was angry that they weren't more concerned with the Lupus-ridden man hitting his head, but then… the way he went down… was so ridiculous. It was like he was a love-struck ballerina dancing right into a brick wall. The frown on her face melted slowly, and she started laughing as well. They sat there on the curb, shaking with each other, and at times none of them were quite sure if they were laughing at the fall, crying about what all they'd faced, or some of both. But did it really matter? They picked each other off the ground, patting them all on the back and shoulder, and slowly piled back into the van.

"Back to the forsaken Kwislands!" Regan called from the driver's seat. Miroku laughed, but something caught Sango's thoughts. Why was there something in her head telling her not to go back? It was… something… but it wasn't coming, like dream butterfly that flies away in the morning before there was energy to write down what it told you. Eventually she let the matter go, and instead started thinking about what she was going to do with her life now… and whether Inuyasha was still there.

But that butterfly nagged her the whole ride back.

* * *

It's nice to write from someone else's perspective. :)

What did you guys think? Is Miroku's take on relationships legit? Was it okay for Sango to curse out Kikyo and Inuyasha? Have you ever lost a friend? Have you ever wondered whether it was okay just to be sad? Comment and let me know - - - seriously, I want to know more about you wonderful people. And if you want to critique the story too, that's awesome, but that's not everyone's thing. Thus, I'm trying to officially open up other options.

Technically this is getting done and posted on a Thursday. Half-way through editing the chapter my internship sent me an email of stuff to edit, so I had to do that first. 'Cause, you know, that's important.

Chapter Preview: A lot of the stuff I alluded to in the last chapter that I didn't get to in this one. However, the focus will be on Inuyasha and Kikyo. Kagome will come in the chapter after that.


	19. Chapter 17

I really hate that I'm not able to write as much fan-fiction these days. Between all the other things I'm doing I *MAY* have enough time to write a paragraph every other day. Sigh.

I'm going to get chapters out as often as I can. I'm also going to try to write more concisely… if there was ever an environmental pressure for me to finally get to the f-ing point, this would be it.

* * *

Chapter 17

* * *

Sango couldn't understand what felt wrong about the research facility as the car finished its drive up to the north. When the electric motor whirred to a stop on the gravel courtyard and Sango jumped out, she saw the mountains and the bay in the distance, and she realized it was the sun. It had dipped almost all the way below the horizon. This was the first night she'd seen this far north.

She moved out of the way to let Miroku get out of his seat. As he descended he said, "We need to find Inuyasha, get any shreds of information on plum wine, and get out of here. Exactly how, I'm not sure, but—"

Regan came round the front of the car. "Okay comrades, ready for some proper sleep?"

Sango stared at his effervescence. Kagome was dead… and Inuyasha too. Miroku might have been holding on hope that his dear friend was fine, but Sango wasn't hedging her bets that way. The Kwis could have returned, the nurse's ward could have collapsed, whatever started the kitchen and third story explosions might have struck again… how could anyone have the energy to be excited?

"Let's just see if there's anyone left," She muttered, pushing aside the red-eyed half demon. Miroku loped up to Regan after Sango passed. He paused, but said nothing. In another moment he and his cane were crunching on the gravel, heading for the main entrance.

Sango put her hand on the dark doorframe. A large knife stuck out at her neck in the darkness.

"Who're you!?" The darkness asked.

After her yelp, Sango cursed and said, "It's Sango! The one in the bio-chem lab that went with Miroku and Regan to the hospital in Sano Omi! Jesus…"

"Where's your ID?" Another voice said, but the minotaur stepped out of the shadows and into the gloaming light.

"I've got mine," Regan said, pulling out a little card.

"We asked for hers, not yours," They replied.

Sango's face burned. She'd taken her lab coat off at some point before she left the facility during the attack… but where? Had they recovered it? Was it under rubble and - - - questions weren't helping.

"I don't have it on me, but it's probably in the facility, maybe around the nurse's ward. Check with the lost and found people at the front desk and—"

"They're dead," The knife guy said bitterly.

"And so is my friend. I had to hold this one down while the head nurse ripped a tube out of his leg," She jutted her thumb over at Miroku, who winced. "Don't get high and mighty with me just because someone you know died that say."

"Hey, hey y'all, hang on, I'll go in and see if I can find Sango's card," Regan said, showing his credentials to the guards. They didn't move. "Oh come on you two, we play billiards all the time!"

"Billiards… _that_ word stayed the same over hundreds of years?" Sango mumbled to herself.

"What's going on?" A cool, clear voice said from beyond the minotaurs. Dressed in a gauzy nightgown, Lady Kikyo appeared from the shadows, hair tied back and frazzled.

"These three are trying to get inside without proper identification," The knife holder said.

Kikyo squinted into the night. "Give me moment, whoever you are, I'm not lucky enough to have demon blood.."

"It's Sango, Miroku, and Regan," Sango said.

"Oh!... Are you well enough to be here Miroku? You frightened all of us," Kikyo put a gentle hand on the knife holder's shoulder. "Don't worry you two, I can vouch for them.

The guards stepped aside and let the three through, but immediately stepped back together once they joined Kikyo.

"Guys, really? You're gonna be like this?" Regan asked them in vain.

"I'm sorry Regan," Kikyo began. "But in light of what happened eight days ago… Has it already been a week?..."

"Don't worry, I catch it…" he said like a sullen teenager, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

Kikyo used her hoop of keys to unlock the front desk and didn't bother shutting it behind her. A small light flickered on in the room, and a moment later Sango could see Kikyo rummaging through boxes, holding something that looked like a flashlight with chain link over the bulb.

"Here… here are your lab coats," Kikyo said, bringing them over to the front desk. Sango stared at the woman intently, waiting for a slurry of foul words to be flung at her for disrespecting the _prince_…

"Is Inuyasha alright?" Miroku asked carefully.

Kikyo's head snapped up, but slowly returned to stare at the lab coats. "Oh yes… yes he… the prince is fine.

"_Good_," Sango slurred, pulling her coat out from Kikyo's bone white hands. As she started towards the stairwell of her usual quarters - - at least that's what it seemed, it was hard to be certain in the dark - - Kikyo called out:

"Ms. Taijiya, a word please…"

Sango stopped mid-step. '_Ignore her, just one more step, just push things a little bit…_' Sango's anger said. She took a deep breath and turned around with a placid face, hoping she looked kindly to the Lady. She didn't.

"I'll forgive the actions that took place during the attack, but in spite of your close relationship with the crown prince you are still to refer to him with utmost respect… both of you," She said, putting her stare on Miroku as well. "Any more foul tones and I'll have to take deleterious action that I do not want to take."

"Understood," Miroku said with a small nod. He pulled his coat away from the charred front desk, adjusted his cane, and hobbled over to Sango. They headed towards the stairway.

"Oh!" Kikyo called out. "I'm sorry Ms. Taijiya, the… the portion of the building where your room was is… burnt out, I'm afraid. Ask around to see if there's an extra bed in the women's corridor."

Only Miroku saw Sango's hands clench. She nodded and marched up the stairs, carefully whispering about how useless Ms. Kikyo was by not thinking to provide arrangements for Sango ahead of time. Miroku held back a moment at the bottom of the staircase, noting how Sango wasn't thinking about the fact that Lady Kikyo _didn't know_ they were coming...

He looked back through the open doorway at the facility manager. She hadn't moved from the desk. He noted the halo of frazzled hair and her stare. Though her gaze was pointed to the wall, it seemed like she was focused on something many miles away.

'_Best to leave her be…'_ he mused. Miroku took on the steps one painful move at a time, trying to keep the wild ripping sensation in his leg at bay. He was panting and sweating by the time he reached the second floor.

He heard Sango knocking on doors, asking for an extra bed. Miroku turned down his corridor, and limped towards room. His and Inuyasha's room. It didn't surprise Miroku that Inuyasha was still alive, but it still made him smile with relief knowing he'd get to see his old friend again in one piece.

Miroku set down his satchel of bloodied clothes and medicine, found his key, and opened the door lock, pushing the door open with his cane. The room was empty aside from his bed and personal items. Nothing remained to indicate that two people had been living in here, even for one week.

'_So he moved in with the Lady…_' Miroku wondered. He couldn't deny being stung. Sure, Yasha had been talking about it like a love-struck pre-teen since he and Kikyo had first began the physical side of their instant relationship. But in the wake of Kagome's death he _still_ made the move?

_'Maybe he'll come down here when Kikyo tells him we're back…' _He thought, pulling his items into the room and shutting the door behind him. Miroku looked around the room again… it felt like a cave. He opened the small closet built into the wall, found one of his books, and slipped into his bed, staying as close to the window as possible for light. He fell back into where he left off, reviewing ancient human migrations in the world as different demon civilizations collapsed. Miroku was just starting to get bored with the reading, and moving his hands down his pants for something more intriguing, when someone knocked on the door.

Miroku's hand flew out of his pants and went behind him to prop him up. "It's open!" He called.

The head that popped through the door didn't have white hair - - it had black. Well, that eliminated one of a hundred people it could possibly be. "I can't see you," Miroku said.

"There were no open beds," Sango said sullenly.

Oh. Sango. Miroku pushed his legs up slightly so she wouldn't catch sight of the bulge in his pants. Specifically the bulge that just perked up a bit.

"Ah…" Miroku said. He hesitated a moment. "Well, uh… Inuyasha isn't staying in this room anymore. Use his bed."

Even though it was dark he saw her eyebrows shoot up. "Really? Well… uh… that's lucky I guess. In a sickening way."

Miroku quickly repositioned items in his crotch while Sango's back was turned, setting down her small bag on Yasha's old bed. Oh man oh man oh man this… this…

He wanted her body. Very VERY bad - - he'd known that since about 0.25 seconds after seeing her for the first time. But then things went sour, and he'd gotten caught up in this big mess of politics and fucked upedness, and before he knew it they were calling themselves friends. On a deeper level than Miroku was usually comfortable with. He imagined her taking off her clothes, the ridges and arches of her body barely lit by the—

'_NO BRAIN STOP THAT,_' Miroku cursed internally. Fucking stupid high sex drive. Fucking fucking fucking stupid high - - he really shouldn't use the word 'fucking' in this situation. Aw crap, he was seeing it. So good—

"I think we need to steal the results to the biochem lab's study on genetic similarities between humans, demons, and Kwis," Sango said. Miroku opened his eyes. She was clothed. Sitting on Yasha's bed. Looking right at him, openly.

'_Focus you motherfucker! Conversation! Do that conversation thing!'_

"…That's the best info we can get on the origin of demons, right? We can show that all three are related, get insight into why Demons and Kwis are morphologically different, and use that to… God I don't even know what we're doing this for. Kagome knew, but… she never…"

Before he knew what he was doing Miroku was up and over at Yasha's bed, sitting next to Sango. He stayed there silently for a moment as she angrily fought her tears, cursing under her breath adorably, and then his arm was around her shoulders - Wait, when did that happen?

Miroku looked down at his crotch. '_You're doing this, aren't you?'_

His answer was the urge to kiss her, and with another woman, in different circumstances he most certainly would have. As his foster father taught him, a woman in need of love is receptive to physical love as well.

Sango was a woman no doubt, but she'd see through him immediately if he made a move. It would ruin everything, all of it.

And he didn't want to be alone in this thing called life anymore either.

Miroku wasn't paying attention as his head leaned over on top of hers. He was too busy feeling blood rush to his face, to his eyes, to his searing frown. What was he _doing?_ What had he _been doing_ all this time? His conversation with Sango in the hospital came back to him, made him shudder. How many people could he feel close to? Who could he trust with his secrets, with his ideas, with the black fear of looming death?

At one time, Inuyasha. When they were teenagers. But something changed when they were sixteen, was never quite the same, and now… now it was like Inuyasha had ceased to exist. Sesshomaru held his half-demon friend's body.

"I don't want to die for this," Miroku whispered, his voice cracking halfway through. "I don't even know what we're doing here or for…"

Sango put her arm around his shoulder too. "There are times- -I think about how she died, that she felt her body catch fire, that she couldn't scream because of the smoke, and - - Jesus," She sobbed. "Jesus Christ… she must have been so scared, and I don't know what it was for, what any of this is for."

They did not sleep together. But Sango and Miroku did find themselves huddled next to each other on Yasha's bed the next morning, arms around each other, faces weary.

* * *

They could see Inuyasha across the mess hall, next to Kikyo. The manager saw Miroku and Sango as they sat down at a table: she waved at them with a tired smile and nudged the half demon. He looked up at the Lady. Miroku saw her say something to Yasha, but the hanyo's face returned to his breakfast. Miroku sat down at his table, thoroughly unimpressed.

A newspaper slapped down on the tabletop. Miroku looked up to see Regan carrying a load of newspapers, blushed and out of breath. "Read it fast," He said before hurrying off to another table. Miroku picked up the paper and felt his blood drain away.

"What?" Sango asked next to him.

Miroku swallowed before reading, "War! Sokoku Attacks Universities in Northern Territories."

"What?!" Sango gasped. She grabbed one side of the paper from him and they read together under their breath:

"After an intensive investigation, the evil forces of the mangy, demon dictatorship, Sokoku, have been indicted in the bombing and raid of a Sano Omi University research facility in the Northern Territories. According to esteemed Chief of D.P. Entei, a revered veteran of our noble war for independence, a series of bombs were hidden in bags of taiga rice and were detonated during dinner hours to ensure as many deaths as possible.

"The Chief further said that these bags were well coordinated, being distributed to several university facilities throughout the north over a course of months to evade detection. Prime Minister Hitomi responded to the attack: "This was a deliberate provocation against the Yokai Republic, further proof of the mal-intent the devils of the north and west intend against our stalwart people. We will respond in kind to this act of war, but we will do with mercy, for we do not want to obliterate our enemies as they so clearly wish for us. We must unite against our common foe and not give in to their petty attempt to disrupt the policy of Brotherly-Embrace in our ancestral northern territories."

Sango went on to skin the rest of the article. "Backed up by special operations commandoes… directly attacked facilities near Goma Bay… fought off by students, primarily of half-demon ancestry… Wait a minute, none of this is accurate!"

Calls of alarm were spreading throughout the room. Miroku looked up in time to see Kikyo looking at her copy of the paper. She gasped, frowned as she read further, and shook her head as if there was a bad taste in her mouth. She jumped out of her seat and left the hall, followed by Regan and a guard.

"The demons are moving," Miroku whispered. "Remember our little chat with the Prime Mother a few weeks ago?"

"But…" Sango looked down at the paper as if she didn't know what to do with it. Her face hardened slowly. She folded the paper and tossed it to the middle of the table as Miroku stood up with his cane. "What are you doing?"

"Time for me to pay a visit to our resident member of royalty," He said. "No no, stay and eat, it probably won't take long. I'll meet you back here or outside the bio lab, kay?"

What would he say? Miroku wasn't sure. He moved around the tables like water around river rocks, slowing as he came closer to his childhood friend. Just a meter behind him and standing, Miroku noticed black hair sprouting out of the hanyo's crown.

After a moment one of the other demons noticed Miroku. "Yes?" She spat.

"I need a word with the Crown Prince," Miroku said. He knew that Inuyasha had sensed his arrival. This was just formality.

The dark skinned demon sighed and sucked on her lips, her razor green eyes darting from the professor and the prince. "Wait over there," She said, pointing towards the near wall with her *fork.

Miroku limped over, but before he could reach one of the demons at the table flicked their tail at Miroku's cane, making the professor stumble and fall to the ground.

Miroku expected the bullying laughter as he picked himself up, snatching his cane from where it landed.

"*What an example of noble class,*" Miroku heard from the table. The same female demon who spoke to him said it. The professor was up on his feet, managed the meter more to the wall, turned and rested his back against it. Remembering his time growing up around Inuyasha's mother's royal entourage, Miroku stared at the far wall, watching the events unfolding at the demon table in his peripheral vision.

"Come on, it was funny!" The reptile tail demon.

"*To a school boy perhaps,*" Green eyes said.

"*Listen to you all high and mighty,*" Reptar said.

'_What the fuck are they saying?_' Miroku wondered.

Conversations rose and fell around the table. Miroku felt his hungry stomach whimper as Sango got up from their table, placed her empty tray in the wash-tub, and headed out of the mess hall. But patience was necessary with this kind of demon. Miroku waited painfully for nearly an hour before the demons started moving from the table. He watched as Inuyasha moved to leave the mess hall.

"Prince, that man has been waiting there all this time," Green eyes said. "Don't be so cruel so as to deny him your presence."

Inuyasha stopped mid-step. He turned around as the other demons went along to their business, leaving their plates and cutlery at the table.

"What do you have to say Miroku?" Inuyasha finally said.

Miroku's mouth opened and hung. He hadn't figured out what to say yet. He sighed, closed his mouth, swallowed, and tried again. "Sango and I are leaving. We're taking what we came here for but then we're out. I figured I should at least tell you."

Inuyasha's eyebrows rose slightly, as if feigning interest to a child who expected congratulations for reading a ten-page book. "That it?"

"That is all," Miroku replied.

Inuyasha's eyes flicked over to the newspaper splayed over the table beore he turned and walked away.

"…Why'd you hit her?" Miroku called out.

Inuyasha stopped dead. He turned around slowly, dangerously. Miroku smiled inwardly. "What?"

"Kagome," Miroku said. "Before she died, you punched her. Why?"

"I… I haven't punched anyone," Inuyasha replied.

"That's not what I heard," Miroku replied. He knew Yasha had shoved Kagome; he hadn't punched her. But Miroku also knew how to get under the white haired man's skin, and telling him the 'rumors' going around about him did the job perfectly. Especially if said rumors didn't exist.

"Well you heard wrong."

"Then what did happen?"

"None of your fucking business," Inuyasha said, turning away again with tense shoulders.

"It was Kagome's business though," Miroku replied. "You act like you don't even miss her."

Inuyasha turned to face Miroku again, grinding his teeth together. "I don't."

"Then why did my insinuating otherwise make you angry?"

"That didn't do anything; you being an annoying twat who won't mind his own fucking business is what's making me angry. You don't want to see me angry."

Miroku guffawed. "Wow… that sounded just like the king, Yasha. You're definitely following in your step-mother's footsteps."

"Don't you DARE compare me to that bitch!" Inuyasha roared. He turned to face Miroku and stomped up to him, finger poking at the professor's face. "You need to shut your fucking face, you got that? You don't know what I've been through, you don't—"

"Oh, I don't?" Miroku said calmly. That was all he needed. Inuyasha's temper was pushed high, but his legitimacy was broken. The half-demon's lips quivered, trying to grab the words that had been on his tongue but tumbled off. Inuyasha's other hand reared back and slammed into the wall next to Miroku's head, breaking through it with a blunt crunch.

"That'll be your head next time you—!"

"No it won't Inuyasha, because there won't be a next time." Miroku said.

Inuyasha jerked his head back momentarily. He stared, confused.

"Remember what I said? Sango and I are leaving. I don't want to leave you behind… but you're leaving me no choice. Sango could probably care less considering what you did to her best friend. There won't be a next time. You'll be all alone in a few hours.

"Though that makes me wonder… do your hunting buddies know about your personal history? Do they know what you've been through? I do… I was there for it, and you will always be my brother. I will always care for you, 'cause you're Yasha. But I don't know about those new guys - - they seem awful similar to the floozies that hung around you when you were a teenager, the ones who befriended you for a few months before finding out you couldn't get them in close contact with the King, and then they scattered."

Miroku looked down at his cane, allowing Inuyasha a moment to remember. When Miroku looked back up at his friend's face his angry frown had deepened, but there were other emotions mixed with it. Greif… guilt… confusion… a few others probably. Miroku put his arm around Yasha's shoulders and gave him a heavy pat. "Goodbye my brother."

Miroku calmly lumbered away from the table, heading for the exit. Just before he reached it he heard:

"I didn't punch her… I never wanted to hurt her."

Miroku looked over his shoulder. Inuyasha was struggling to get his hand out of the wall - - with a sandy pop it shot out, and the half-demon stumbled back a ways. He wouldn't look at Miroku, only at a corner of the room.

'_Say nothing or speak?_' Miroku wondered. If he said nothing then it would probably add to his friend's feeling of isolation, driving him away from Miroku and towards the other demons. So he should say something, something sympathetic.

"I figured," Miroku said. He hesitated before saying, "I'm sorry, Inuyasha. She didn't mean nothing to you, I know that. I was out of line."

That was the ticket. Inuyasha's hands slowly moved up to cover his face, the sign that he was feeling again.

Miroku leaned against the mess hall entrance, waiting. He'd seen his friend battle his deep desires many times, sometimes surrendering to them like he had recently. All Yasha really needed was someone to cut through all is illusions and validate what he was _honestly_ feeling. Usually that meant careful manipulation. Maybe some lying. Maybe some ego swallowing. But Inuyasha always came around. He just had to be reminded that the hurt little boy inside hadn't gone away.

"Yasha, I'm going up to the bio lab… head up there in a bit if you want to say goodbye to us," Miroku called to him. Yasha's crying hiccup was his "I'll be there."

Miroku struck out his cane and headed towards the stairs… oh stairs. How quickly he'd come to hate stairs.

He reached the bio lab right as he heard a flurry of talking echoing up from the first floor. He shrugged, met Sango, and headed inside.

Their plan was simple. Miroku would 'accidently' start a sodium fire and spill it over important data sheets in the lab. Bankotsu would have to go into the bio-lab's inner library to get the original copies of their present experiment, during which Sango would slip in, hold him at "gun point" while Miroku would get a copy of the genetics test. It wasn't subtle, but it didn't need to be. All they needed to do was get Bankotsu away, tie him up, sneak out the side of the building, steal a car, and get going before anyone noticed Bankotsu was stuffed in a locker.

However, when they walked into the lab, Miroku and Sango realized Bankotsu wasn't there. A few other regular researchers were already in their areas, typing furiously on their typewriters or pouring over their experiments. Sango asked one of them where their manager was.

"He's downstairs," One of them said. "He got called down just a little while ago by Lady Kikyo… apparently there's some brouhaha at the University she wanted to talk about."

"Ah," Sango said. "Well, thank you."

She meandered back to where Miroku was waiting. "Now what? Just wait?" She muttered. He nodded.

The door to the lab opened with a rush. Three large men entered, two wearing dark blue uniforms with badges marked "D.F." on the front.

"Where is Sango Taijiya?" One of them asked.

Miroku and Sango froze. He grabbed her hand as one of the other researchers pointed to them. The men strode over, grabbed her arm, and pulled her out of the lab.

"Whoa, hey! What the hell is going on?!"

The officers spoke to each other in demon tongue. Several researchers had stepped out into the hall, watching her dragged down the hall. Miroku's leg seared as he scrambled to get out and see her as well. "Sango! Sango!" He called.

"They're saying I'm a Sokoku spy!" Sango screamed. Miroku made it through the crowd just in time to see her being dragged down the side stairs, her hands already handcuffed. She stuck a cloth in her mouth. Her eyes - - he'd never seen them terrified. And then they were gone.

* * *

Sango saw Kikyo in handcuffs as she was yanked out of the building. The two locked eyes on each other, both confused, scared, being pushed into cars. Her coat and all of her things were ripped off her and stuffed into a small bag by one of the officers. He opened the front seat of the car and tossed the bag inside. Another opened up the back seat of the car and pushed Sango in, closing it so fast the door almost caught her hair.

_ 'ME?! A SPY!? WHAT THE HELL!?_' Sango's head screamed as she sat, dazed as she waited in the backseat of the car. '_Was it something on the hospital record? They said it would be confidential, but the fuck was that the truth- - - wait a minute…'_

She looked at the satchel of items in the front seat.

'_Wait a minute…_'

She could make out the outline of a small box… her ammo box. And her gun next to it.

'_They want the gun. Kaede said that Sokoku knew about the weapon, and Iguto did - - the Youkai Republic found out. They're taking the gun, and taking me to show them how to use it. But how did they find me?!'_

Her heart thudded.

Whoever was behind all this, they were going to kill her.

She was going to die if she didn't get out of that car.

The guard was on the other side of the car with his back to the window. Sango scooted out of her seat and pushed her hands down below her waist, pushing them around the bottom of her feet so her cuffed hands were in front of her. There were no inside door hatches or ways of unlocking the car, and a grate stood between her and access to the front seats. How was she going to-?

Sango looked down at the seat she had been sitting in. It had pulled away slightly from her shimmying.

She grinned and spat out the cloth. Her hands pulled on the seat, and after a few tugs it gave and bent down. She peered over the back window- - the D.F. man was coming back! She peered down into the blackness of the car trunk behind the seat. She could just barely make out the unguarded wires and rods that controlled the trunk hood. She squeezed through the crevice and cramped her way into the darkness.

She heard the man's voice outside the car. Sango grunted and swilved around so she could grab the back of the seat. She yanked it twice and it clicked back into place.

"*WHERE IS SHE!?*" Sango heard outside the car. Something impish inside made her want to smile, but she was too terrified to do so. Sounds of moving gravel - - something heavy hit the car.

"*FIND HER YOU IDIOTS! GO, GO!*"

The sound of running feet on gravel. Sango shifted so her back was on the back of the floor of the trunk and she started feeling the ceiling. Crap - - she had no idea what any of these wires or levers did, they weren't in the same form as cars she's trained on in Basic!

'_Focus… be calm and focus… I have to open the latch, so start by feeling up the latch.'_ She shifted her weight again, wondering if all her wriggling was moving the car as well. She found the latch and felt around for a quick release wire, but found none.

'_I know where the latch is - - maybe I can pry it open,'_ Sango thought, turning over again so her front was on the floor. She struggled pulling up on the carpet of the trunk, but pulled it back far enough to feel the treds of a spare tire and a jack. Her teeth ground together as her arms bent awkwardly trying to pull the jack out, but with a grunt it popped out from under the carpet. She set it up against the trunk latch and cranked slowly, trying to keep a wary ear to any returning member of the D.F.

A minute passed, then halfway through the second the latch groaned. Sango cranked the jack twice more with a fury, and the latch popped. The trunk catapulted open, but Sango saw someone was standing right in front of it! The person jumped back and cursed, bending over the ground holding his jaw - - it was the D.F. officer, minus two bloody teeth. Sango pushed her self up, kicked the man over, and without thinking stomped on his windpipe. She felt it crunch under her shoe, but this was a half-demon - - she took no chances, stomping on his throat again, then his at face as his arms shot up and grabbing her leg.

She fell, but aimed to fall on top of him. Her handcuffed hands grabbed a knife from his belt and she stabbed his crotch. The terrifying pain of his scream didn't faze her - - Sango wriggled out of his grip, jumped up, and kicked him in the face, stomping on his face until his nose broke and fell into his skull. He stopped screaming, and is flailing arms fell to the ground like stone.

"That won't win me any friends," she muttered as she ran for the jungle. Then it hit her - - the gun! Sango turned to run back to the car, but she saw guards across the courtyard coming around the building. They saw the body of the officer.

"Leave the gun, leave the gun!" She yelled at herself, stumbling back into the jungle.

Where was she going to run to in the forest? She had no idea - - maybe she could find somewhere to hide? But where!? Inuyasha had a powerful sense of smell - - who was to say those other demons and half-demons didn't as well? It didn't matter, she kept running, working her way up a hill, away from the road—

She tripped and fell into a bed of flowers. Shouting behind her - - get up! Sango felt the sting of dirt and sticks stuck on her skin, but then, in front of her, was a coat. A lab-coat. It had a name attached. She almost kept running, but the name - - - Kagome.

For a moment she stared, then she jumped up, snatched the coat, and ran up the hill. Shouting behind her, getting closer!

'_How is this here!?' _Her mind screamed. Heart pounding, run! Jump across the creek, there are vines going up the side of that cliff, climb it!

'_The anthropology office is on the other side of the…_' She stopped running. "Of the building…"

She glanced over her shoulder. The part of the facility she could see was untouched by the blasts. It was impossible for Kagome's lab coat to have gotten over here, even if it was projected as debris. She looked up at the canopy, and saw no other debris. It was only the coat.

'_I never saw her body. They never found a body..._' She started running again, going towards the vines, but it took only a moment for her trained eye to see they weren't vines. They were moss-covered ropes.

Sango stared at the coat in her hands, then at the ropes in front of her. '_No one found the body…_'

Another shout, the rustle of pushed aside plants.

Sango grabbed the rope in front of her and hauled herself up. Thank goodness she kept her training up all this time - - she was on top of the small cliff side in seconds. She found a tree at the top where all the ropes came together and knotted in a loop around the trunk. She attacked the knot, unraveling it and throwing it back over the cliff. Then she ran deep into the forest, not sure where she was going, only knowing it was getting darker and darker.

The trees and shrubs broke. She found herself at the foot of an enormous field of tall grasses. Maybe three kilometers away she saw another tree line, and farther beyond that, near a mountain base several kilometers beyond, smoke was rising. Sango looked at Kagome's lab coat, then back at the smoke. She knew where she was going.

A voice haunted her though as she ran through the grasses.

…_returning will cause the deaths of five people who otherwise do not have to die…_

* * *

Ta dah!

I really have to admit that I wish I could just write a fun and happy chapter. I'm tired of being at the bottom of the barrel in this story. But we have to get through the muck to really appreciate the good times to come… le sigh.

And I'm on the twitter thing now! Mwahahaa! Now I can take over the world!... yeah, not really. But still, I'm excited.


	20. Chapter 18

An update so soon? Is it a sign of the apocalypse? We dodged 2012 and few asteroids (save one); the apocalypse has to have some other warning sign… yeah, but this ain't it. Just got some unexpected free time.

Dear readers: you all are awesome. I regularly give shouts out to commenters to encourage more comments (because 1. Other people's critical eyes can see things mine can't, 2. It motivates me, and 3. Stories with more comments get more readers, which increases the likelihood of comments, which motivates me to write more and sooner), but I want take a moment to thank my regular readers who don't comment. You guys are awesome too. Responding verbosely to what someone writes isn't easy for everyone, or sometimes we don't know what to write in a comment, etc. - - I'm usually in the read-no-comment category as well. Though I'm changing that personal modus operandi, I want you guys to know that I'm still so happy that this story is making you guys happy even if you don't write that down. The happiness is what counts.

In answer to the question "When are they going to have sex?" (I'm guessing you mean Inuyasha and Kagome)… that's still a ways off. As this chapter's going to show, their relationship has some big freaking mountains to move before any sexeh times be happenin'.  
Note: I said Inuyasha and Kagome have a ways to go. I didn't say anything about anyone else…

* * *

Chapter 18

* * *

Inuyasha heard the conversation all the way down the hall in Kikyo's office. The D.F. were removing her from her director's position for criminal complacency in the attack on the research facility. There was also something else about harboring spies from Sokoku but he couldn't make it out. Instead he heard the sharp cackle of handcuffs and Kikyo's words: "Insane!" "Stop it!"

This was insane, everything was insane. Was he insane too? No, don't think about it, don't remember. But still Miroku's face hung around his thoughts, foggy words…

_She…Kagome… she didn't mean nothing…  
_  
Inuyasha faced the wall where his hand was once buried, bound by his shaking body. His mantra had been '_Kagome means nothing_' for weeks. At first he had been angry with her, then they had arrived at the research facility and she acted to snobbish, so fake. She had… she had… he kept telling himself she had. It was too dangerous to think anything different. But then '_Kagome means nothing'_ took on another use; it was his prayer when he did prostrations in the atrium. He uttered it when he was alone with Kikyo and something felt wrong. He repeated it when he saw his friend's face in his lover's, when a kiss felt empty, when gratifying ecstasy yielded the horrible question, "What the hell are you doing!?"

Kikyo was the much better woman. She didn't try to shove morals down his throat, didn't fight him, didn't challenge his wants. She even made sure no one else questioned his royal position… all the demons quiet for once… accepting him…  
_'Just because they didn't say anything doesn't mean they didn't think it,'  
_  
The thought made him shiver, just as it did every night. It kept getting louder too, ever since Kagome died. He couldn't tell Kikyo about what he was feeling - - how could he? The other demons would think he was weak. No way he could talk to Sango; she hated his guts like always had. She'd been hiding it all this time but when they came to the Kwis lands she let her true colors show. And Miroku… even Miroku was abandoning him.  
'_Not even my mother would…'_

Thundering oceans in his ears, crashing on his mind. Sticky, moist sweat bubbling onto his neck's skin. Inuyasha shut his eyes and tried to bury the feelings making his heart rattle in his chest. The flare of anger burst through his fingers. When he opened his eyes Inuyasha saw there was new hole in the wall, courtesy of his other hand.

What had he been thinking about? Oh yeah, Kagome means nothing. She means nothing. _Meant _nothing.

Someone was screaming in the front courtyard. He knew the voice somehow… it was who? He jumped over two tables and grabbed onto the door frame to spin around quickly. He caught his weight and lunged out the main entrance. A guard and a D.F. officer were running towards a car on the far side of the courtyard. He smelled fresh blood's wet, metallic aroma. He looked to his left and saw there was another D.F. car with an officer running inside it. He slammed the door shut as another officer rounded a corner of the building, waving the car on. Inuyasha caught sight of a hint of red in the back seat, and then saw Kikyo's confused, tearing face.

"Hey! Let her out!" Inuyasha yelled, lunging over to the car and stopping just short of the other officer.

"Step away from… the vehicle!" the officer panted.

"*I'm Crown Prince Inuyasha of Iguto, and you will-!*"

"Save it - - your dirty little country might think you're a prince," the officer rasped. "But that's just 'cause they're stupid enough to think that means anything. Get her out of here!"

He slapped the back of the car twice and its engine whirred. A moment later the car was spitting gravel at Inuyasha, speeding down the dirt road back to the northern train station, or maybe it was going straight to Sano Omi. He jogged after it until his feet met the edge of the courtyard, but even he couldn't go that fast. Kikyo's head was straining to see him in the rearview window, but soon her image was lost in the jungle's dark shadows.

Inuyasha's hands clenched. He whirled around to strike down the D.F. officer, but the man was gone. There was shouting in the hills near the corpse. He stood there, stuck in confusion. He suddenly found himself back inside the dusty, dilapidated research facility, figuring his feet moved him there on his own. They kept wandering him around until he overheard:

"…dangerous, in spite of being a human. Orders are shoot to kill. Do I have any volunteers?"

Inuyasha looked up to face the building's atrium, holding about a third of the facility's research detail. Of the dozen people three hands shot up, only one of which he recognized… what was that guy's name?

"Regan, yes, you'll do fine," A thick demon in a rust colored lab coat said, waving the red-eyed demon to the front of the room. "You two, yes, you'll be good. We need one more volunteer for the mission! None of you? Not a single one?"

"What's this all about?" Inuyasha asked someone nearby. The big man in front heard and turned his head to look at the prince.

"Ah, Crown Prince Inuyasha, how about a chance to hunt down a Sokokuni spy?"

"Spy? What are you talking about?"

"A woman going by the name Sango Taijiya, though we doubt that is her real name, has been found with close ties to the Sokoku bombing of these facilities, and has killed the D.F. officer who was peaceably apprehending her. As a—"

"Whoa, wait, you mean Sango? A spy? Wha… _that_ officer outside? But he was pure demon!"

Worried mutters buzzed around the room.

"Pardon me Crown Prince, but do you have your facts straight?" rust-coat asked. "I was informed the officer was a half-demon."

"Hell no, our blood doesn't smell like that," Inuyasha shot back. More murmurs.

"Volunteers will be armed with knife-launchers then!" rust-coat said. "Calm down! We still need one more volunteer - - she is just a human afterall."

"A human that can kill a demon? Aw hell no, I ain't messing with some freak bitch like that!" One of the minotaurs called out. Similar calls followed, but Inuyasha's feet took over again, and when he realized the yelling had stopped he heard his own voice saying, "I'll do it."

"Good, excellent. You four report upstairs immediately for proper gear - - this woman might have accords with the Kwis as well as Sokoku, so we cannot take any chances with this mission."

Inuyasha's feet wandered off again, following the three people in front of him, a few of them saying the new director was rust-coat, Bankotsu or something from the bio-chem labs. Inuyasha didn't think as he pulled on the steel core leather armor, only realizing it was pretty much useless compared to his skin as he received his knife-launcher and was heading outside. Maybe it was a psychological thing - - the demons who were so scared of the demon-slayer just wanted a vestige of protection to cool their nerves?

He saw the sandy gravel and the jungle up ahead. Apparently Inuyasha was already heading out to do... to do what exactly? He took a deep breath of air... focus...

He caught a weak, coral scent. Sango - - right, he was supposed to be hunting Sango. So she'd been a spy all this time, eh? He should have guessed it, what with her being so rude towards him for so long.

But that thought nagged him like a bee buzz. '_That's not right,'_ something inside him said. He remembered Sango joining the research group, running with her in an airport... Oh yeah. She wasn't from Beji at all, was she? So why would she be a spy?

Inuyasha stopped running. "*Why would she be a spy?...*" He whispered. Only one of the others was close enough to hear him, a man with a bandana over his black hair. The demon's red eyes locked with Inuyasha's for a moment with a strange, knowing linger.

"*Come on!*" One of the others yelled out ahead of them. "*I can smell her up this way!*"

Inuyasha pushed through wet leaves that slapped him in the face and scratchy underbrush. Eventually he followed the others by jumping over a frothing creek in a single bound. He growled at the dark plants that awaited him beyond, snapping a thin tree to get through the tight jungle. He hated it, how close it all was, vines strangling trees, bushes squirming against others to reach the droplets of light the highest trees didn't grab themselves. He wanted out, and breathed again when he found a small cliff. The others started climbing the rocks strategically, but Inuyasha simply jumped to the top and waited, relishing the electricity in his panting veins. The first one up was the bandana guy who Inuyasha swore he once knew the name of. Bandana crawled up to the ledge and sat waiting for the others, his legs hanging off the edge.

"*Move your asses, a storm's coming!*" Inuyasha called down. A wall of red clouds were shooting high into the atmosphere, throwing the wind to their back. In one moment Sango's scent was as clear as a crystal bell, but it wavered into a puff of smoke. By the time the other two got up top, the rain was smacking the ground in lone, noisy drops, and Inuyasha smelled nothing but silver.

They jumped into the black jungle, all except bandana guy sucking at the air to pick up the slayer's scent. In the trees where the wind was broken they caught her trail again, bolted, and found themselves in front of an enormous plain of grasses. The storm lashed at them from beyond the tree line, throwing the field into a violent, waving dance.

The demons except bandana looked at Inuyasha. "*What shall we do, Crown Prince?*"

Inuyasha leered into the rain. He couldn't see anything. "*We split up! You two take that way towards the bay, we'll take this way up to the mountain. Report back to the research facility in two days if you don't find her!*"

Inuyasha pushed on with bandana into the frenzied plain. The grasses slashed at their faces and arms, and only a short way through the wind and rain started shoving them back down the hill. Bandana pointed over to the tree line they came from and signalled to walk along it until it reached the mountain proper. Seeing little use in his endeavor so far, Inuyasha turned back, trotting along the tree line, desperate for any smell of Sango.

After an hour of jogging Inuyasha stopped. It was clear that this plain was massive; they weren't going to get to an ascending tree line any time soon. He told this to Bandana and started walking back.

"Why'd you volunteer to go after her?" the guy called out over the rain.

Inuyasha kept walking. "Why'd you?"

"I asked first, buddy, you got the obligation to answer first!"

Inuyasha ignored the growling thunder above them. "You will address me as Crown Prince Inuyasha, not 'buddy'!"

"That takes too long!" Bandana replied. "Seriously, does it really matter whether everyone says that long title to you all the time?!"

"Someone like you wouldn't understand..." Inuyasha hissed.

"What?!"

"I didn't say anything!"

"Liar!" he said. "I saw your mouth move!"

"How would you know!?" Would this guy not shut up?

"You've got a great nose, but I've got great eyes. A demon's gotta use what he's got, ya know?"

"No I don't, 'cause I'm a half-demon! Just shut up!" Inuyasha snapped, jogging again.

Bandana caught up with him easy. "You were with Sango and Miroku and Kagome when you all came up here - - I drove you guys. If that Sango girl was really a spy for Sokoku, you of all people would know, right? So is she?!"

"No!" Inuyasha blurted out. "Maybe! Fuck, I don't know, just leave me alone!"

"Good, then we both know she's being framed for the bull shit that happened two weeks ago!" Bandana yelled.

Inuyasha was quiet for a few minutes. "You drove us?"

"Yeah! I'm Regan, the super sexy guy who should'a been born a red-head!"

"Don't flatter yourself," Inuyasha slurred. "People see through vain types like you easy!"

Regan whistled. "We-he-hell, vain am I?! That's something coming from prince prissy pants!"

"Shut up!"

"And if I was so 'easy to see through', whatever _that_ means, why'd Miss Kagome let me kiss her?!"

Inuyasha whirled, punching Regan into a tree. The prince held him there furiously for a second, waiting to see if his demon blood was going to take over. A few seconds passed. His blood chilled. "I said… shut… up."

Regan stood motionless for a moment before scrunching up his face. "Nah, I like talking."

Inuyasha seethed. "Shut _up_ or I'll fucking kill you!"

"Nope, you won't," Regan replied.

"Oh, you wanna see me?! You wanna fucking see me rip your obnoxious little head off!?"

"Who're you talkin' to?" Regan quipped.

"Me! I-!" Inuyasha jumped back, landing in the mud, in the rain. Regan stood in front of him, hidden slightly by the tree's shadows. "I-I meant you! I was talking to you!"

Regan shook his head. "No, you weren't. You Iguto types are all the same - - each and every one-a-ya is seriously fucked up. So what was it for you? Witnessing the civil war? The bone-breaking famine? Being thrown out of your loving homeland with less care than garbage?"

"…Wha…*shut up!*" Inuyasha yelled.

Regan stood there quietly, but it didn't feel like he was following an order. Inuyasha looked down at the inch of mud that he was sinking into.

"There are a lot of people from Iguto that have had it rough," Regan yelled. "It'd be nice if just one of you didn't try to pretend like everything is fine when it obviously ain't!"

Inuyasha sat there. Memories tried to flood his mind, but there were too many all at once. For a moment he saw his mother's fake smile, but then it was gone and he was gripping clumps of the tall grass.

He slowly stood up, letting the rain wash off the mud. He walked over to Regan at the tree line, turned, and kept going towards where they last had Sango's scent.

"You never told me why you volunteered to find the _spy_," Regan said after several minutes.

"…I don't know," Inuyasha replied. "But she's not a spy. And my… my best friend is waiting for her back at the facility."

"That Miroku guy? S'there a thing goin' on between'em?"

"Mothers, you're like a gossipy teenage girl," Inuyasha sighed. "What about you?"

"…We both know Sango's no spy for Sokoku. My plan was to find her, get rid of the other demons, and help get her out of this place. Something weird's going down in the capital… all over the place if what I've heard is true."

"So you're just helping her because Beji's going to hell and 'cause she's not a spy."

"Ah, correction," Regan reprimanded. "I said she's not a Sokokuni spy. I didn't say anything about her not being a spy."

'_Plum wine,'_ The words hit Inuyasha like a brick to the head. He'd completely forgotten what they four had been up in the kwis lands for in the first place. He shuddered, but kept jogging.

"…Should I take that as a yes then?" Regan eventually asked.

"What?"

"…were all four of you guys spies? Really, the crown prince up in the middle of nowhere of the Y.R. with two aliens and a professor who's last recorded residence was Ko?"

"How'd you know about Ko?"

"Sango filled out his medical forms when she was crying cats and dogs. I turned it in for her, but not before changing his last address to somewhere in Sano Omi."

"Dammit Sango," Inuyasha sighed.

"So what were you guys up here looking for?" Regan asked.

"…What makes you think I'm gonna tell you?" Inuyasha replied. '_What makes you think you're going to live through the night?_

"I'm the only one who knows this area like the back of his hand and can get you guys to a car and across the border inside a day," Regan said.

"…You want to help us?"

"Depends on what you're trying to do!"

Inuyasha didn't imagine himself as a blabber, but suddenly there he was, explaining the looming war amongst the demon states, the countries of Viv and Ala, the possible genocide in Iguto, the civil wars in Sokoku and his homeland, and the reluctance of anyone else to do anything about it.

"So you guys came up here looking for the origin of demons and the kwis… why?"

"Because someone in this republic of yours doesn't want us to know about it," Inuyasha said. "And that information may explain this fuck-job of a continent."

"Sounds legit to me," Regan said. The rain slowed, and when it turned into a drizzle they started pressing up into the plain. Half-way through they were both covered in mud and blood from the razor sharp grasses.

"You guys were fighting weren't you?" Regan asked from several paces ahead.

"Who?" Inuyasha replied.

"You, Kagome, and the rest of them,"

"What's it to you?"

"When friends are fighting, its something to everyone," Regan replied. Inuyasha paused a few moments before pushing through the sludge.

"Yes we were… are, I guess."

"About what?"

"Do you ever shut up?" Inuyasha hurled at him.

"I've got a curious mind, Mister Crown Prince, so no, not really,"

They were getting close to the upper tree line. The ground was becoming progressively rockier, easier to walk on. Inuyasha stared after Regan for a moment before saying, "You don't have to call me Crown Prince, alright? I'll live with Prince."

"What about just Inuyasha?"

The half-demon's hair bristled. "…_fine_."

"Or just Yasha?"

"No."

"Aw come on, it's so much easier!"

"No," Inuyasha repeated.

"Fine, fine…"

How far could a human go through a jungle and a storm? Quite far it turned out; though Inuyasha picked up Sango's scent after a while of searching the upper tree line, it was already starting to fade with the rain and distance. They started running through the forest, crossing jagged ledges and finding a strange rope bridge across a miniature canyon, but as the sun started dipping towards the horizon they were exhausted and missing one spy. Regan whined long enough that Inuyasha finally agreed to camp out for the night and continue their search in the morning.

"Are there any big predators in these jungles I should know about?" Inuyasha asked as he picked at one of the small ration packs stashed away in his armor gear.

"Nah, nothing around this area. The farther north you go, though," Regan said, having shed his armor and tossed it next to a fallen tree. "The bigger things get. It's a tough world out here."

"No need to tell me that," Inuyasha quipped.

Silence took over the conversation for a few minutes. Regan interrupted its monologue: "So what happened to you in Iguto?"

Memories burned on Inuyasha's face. This would be a good moment for alcohol. Inuyasha searched through the different containers on his person, and luck! He found a small bottle with about a drink's worth of… plum wine. He held the bottle between his fingers tenderly as his stare broke into a grimace.

"Was it really that bad?" Regan asked.

"My fault…," Inuyasha whispered. He cracked open the bottle and took a sip, gagging at the poor quality.

"Wha? I didn't hear you."

"*…all you need to know is that it was my fault.*" Inuyasha said, taking another swig of the drink. It was bitter, but the bloom of alcohol in his system wore down the edges of the brambles in his mind.

"*Nothing's is just one person's fault,*" Regan replied. He went back to his armor and searched around for his stash of wine as well. "*This thing's pretty useless, you know? My skin's tougher than it… think I'll just leave it to rot in the forest… Ah, pay-dirt!*"

"*Some things are just one person's fault," Inuyasha replied.

"Were you born by yourself?" Regan said. "Yeah, you weren't. Were you taught about how to live in the world or did you have to do it on your own. Either way, someone else had a hand in influencing how you grew up - - wow, man this stuff is _nasty_…"

"So you're saying no one can ever be responsible for anything they do?" Inuyasha slurred.

"Nah, hold on, I didn't say that. I'm just saying that… that no one's an island, y'know? There is responsibility for bad things that happen, it's just that that responsibility goes around."

Inuyasha took another swig of his wine. "You sound like Kagome."

"Maybe that's why I liked her," Regan muttered.

"…Did she really let you kiss her?"

Regan grinned. "What's it to you? We all heard you and Miss Kikyo going at it, metaphorically and literally."

"Just answer the question…," Inuyasha realized he'd forgotten Bandana's name again.

"…I pecked her cheek," Regan shrugged. He looked off into the deep forest. "I wish I could have gotten to know her better. She seemed really…"

He struggled to find a word to finish his sentence, but in the end Regan just downed in bottle of wine. Maybe that was all that needed to be said between the two of them, that to these two men Kagome Higurashi was really… something. Regan rose to his feet and picked out an emergency blanket from his armor satchel. "As useless as this thing is it sure has a lot of crap stuffed away in it. Still gonna leave it though,"

"…aren't full demons supposed to revel in the evil dark of night?" Inuyasha hurled at Regan lightly.

"Nah, that's you half-demon guys, being all affected by the moon n' all. Now, s'cuse me but it's time for some shut-eye," Bandana said, huddling up his emergency blanket.

"…hey, what's your name again?" Inuyasha asked.

"M'name's Regan Onigumo. Don't wear it out," Regan said mid-yawn.

* * *

Inuyasha sat straight up. The light was out. Regan breathed deep and rhythmic nearby. But Inuyasha knew there was someone else out there... someone, something... blowing the wind...

Just before he fell asleep again he thought he caught sight of red eyes in the dark. But it was a dream... he woke to sticky skin, moist from the deluge the night before and the resulting humidity. Regan was already up, eating a bit of his last ration pack. He smiled and jerked his head a bit as if to say, "Sup?"

How could some people be so stupidly friendly all the time, Inuyasha wondered. A memory took over, standing on the hospital in Prialata with a girl he hardly knew, just talking. But they talked more deeply than he had with anyone else in his life that one time. How could some people do that?

They were running again, heading up the mountainside. They broke through a grove of trees into a tiny valley holding a swollen brook when Inuyasha smelled her. He stopped in the mud, held his nose close to the ground, and inhaled deeply... yup, Sango was upstream. She wasn't alone. There were LOTS of Kwis with her. Inuyasha grabbed Regan by the hair and threw him uphill, following after.

"The hell was that for!?" Regan yelled, tenderly stroking his abused scalp.

"Get your act together, Kwis are up there and I smell Sango," Inuyasha replied.

"Okay, fine, no need to make me bald to get the idea across," Regan whimpered as he picked himself up.

"And get your knife-launcher out! She's with Kwis," Inuyasha added.

"What...?" Regan glared up at brook giving hills. He unhitched his launcher, gripped it with both hands, and hurried ahead. "You got the back if I take front?!"

"Got it, eagle-eye," Inuyasha shot back.

The muddy brook gave way to little more than a rocky ravine after several kilometers. Higher up the mountainside, the trees were thinner and their leaves drier. Another few kilometers and the underbrush was wholly gone. Sango's scent was stronger, and there was no acrid hint of blood, but something else came through his nose.

Inuyasha grabbed hold of a tree trunk nearby. He could hear Sango in the distance... he took another long whiff... that couldn't be possible. She was dead. Kagome was dead. What the hell was her scent doing all the way out here?!

"Yo Regan, something weird's going on up there," Inuyasha hissed.

"What is it?"

"Somebody's fucking with me," Inuyasha muttered, running on. It couldn't fucking be. This was not possible.

"Hey, smart ass, I'm in front remember!?" Regan yelled, running up and launching ahead of the half demon through a deep thicket. Inuyasha got snagged on a thorny bush right as he heard Regan say, "Kagome?!"

He was through the bushes and fell into another ravine. He could just make out the top of an earthen building nearby.

Sango crouched in front of a kwis thing that was holding on to Kagome, a knife drawn, wide eyes.

She's alive?!

It made his eyes sear, his mind scream, something take over.

_Kagome - - the knee, the touch - - his mother, undressing him - - both naked, mother crying, so confused - -just make it stop, make it stop, MAKE IT STOP! _

Eight knives sliced through the air, thudded against a rib cage. The trigger was pulled? Inuyasha opened his eyes. Specks of blood splattered on Sango's and Kagome's horror stricken faces as Regan fell into the dirt, dead, knives sticking out of his back like thin spider legs.

The memory of his mother… she dressed him in the morning light, telling him to be quiet, that this would be their little secret, that it made him feel good, that it made mommy feel better… the light was the same as the light when Kagome and he had been walking along the lake in Polis. He remembered her scar, a hot iron slammed against her ribs by her father… she smiled then… she smiled, she didn't know what his mother had done to him…

She didn't know that his mother grabbed his knee when she wanted to _play with him_…

He was waking from a nightmare to a nightmare. Inuyasha fell back against the hill, eyes wide, staring at what he had done. It was all his fault—

'_Nothing is just one person's fault,'_

But it was all his fault...

'_Nothing is just one person's fault,'_

But it was! But it was! Now it was all gone, everything, everything!

* * *

…I really hated writing this chapter, but its finally over.

A really annoying thing about trauma is the triggers that force you to relive everything you went through. They can be anything: a sight, a smell, a thought. E.g. some of mine are seeing mountains on the horizon or collared polo shirts. But sometimes it can be something as kind as a reassuring touch, and sadly that can set off a chain reaction painful memories, or worse, unassociated emotions of fear, denial, and self-suppression. The more you suppress yourself the harder it gets to think clearly, and you wind up snapping, as Inuyasha did.

That said, there are ways to retrain your brain. You can learn your triggers, learn how to reframe the dynamic in your mind, and live more peacefully. But you have to be willing to grow and change, and above all you really need access to someone who can help you along the path to 'normal enough.' In this case, Kagome was Inuyasha's helper, but she inadvertently became a trigger too. And then Regan, but now he's dead.

...or is he? Afterall, someone with a name like Regan ONIGUMO can't lack importance in an Inuyasha fanfic, can he? MWAHAHAHAA!

Love y'all!


	21. Chapter 19

I wasn't planning on coming out of hiatus early. I was planning on working on my 25 page paper on Christianity's role in ROK politics. But you guys kept commenting, and pm'ing, and I couldn't take it anymore - - I stole time out of my sleep schedule, my school schedule, and… my internship to get SOMETHING to you guys.  
But as I was writing I realized that these next two chapters are huge and important, and I didn't want to half-ass them or leave you guys hanging. Well… hanging TOO much.  
So… here we go.

* * *

Chapter 19

* * *

Neout-Lay's scream thrummed in her throat for a moment before finally breaking. Kagome winced away from the sound as the Kwis girl scrambled backwards, clambering up the hill of the ravine and into the village.

"Oh my god," Sango breathed. Kagome looked over to her friend; rage filled the American's eyes as terror filled Inuyasha's. "What did you-! You killed him! You fucking killed him, you fucking bastard!"

Inuyasha sat in the mud wide-eyed, staring at the knives sticking out of Regan's back.

"You…! You – you – you – You're HORRIBLE!" Sango screamed. "You fucking ass-hole, what did you - - This is, oh god!"

Kagome saw Inuyasha's mouth move, but she couldn't hear what he said. In the distance she heard people in the village responding to Neout-Lay's wails, trying to figure out what happened. Kagome took a ragged breath as she crawled forward and pressed two fingers against Regan's jugular, trying not to look at his glazed eyes. No pulse.

Under Sango's screaming Kagome heard, "I didn't mean it." She looked up at Inuyasha who was staring at the body, or at her, she couldn't tell. "…I didn't mean it," He said again. His face was soft, but starting to wrench up to cry.

"You fucking deserve to die!" Sango was standing, shaking in anger. "You're pure evil, you—!"

"I didn't mean it!" Inuyasha tried to yell, but his voice cracked halfway through. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"You always hated him! You've always hated everything, you haughty, fucking prince, oh you think you can get away with murder, you-!"

"Sango!" Kagome called. "Sango, it was an accident. He didn't mean it."

"You're wrong, he did-!"

"No, Sango, if you thought I was dead, then he did too, he was startled-,"

"You're just saying that 'cause you want him to love you, but he never did Kagome and he never fucking will!" Sango screamed. A moment passed before Sango's eyes widened. She pressed her lips together, willing the words back into her mouth.

"…I already knew that," Kagome whispered, looking down at the dead demon.

Silence hung in the ravine, quickly overtaken by yells and the sound of rapidly approaching feet. Heads popped over the horizon, followed swiftly by barely clothed, blue skinned people, some carrying weapons while others carried pieces of cloth. Gasps and pained moans were followed by angry calls, and those Kwis carrying weapons jumped into the ravine and surrounded Kagome, Inuyasha, and Sango.

"Raeseukya? Mulek der kwis le heolaongoe?" one of the weapon-wielders asked angrily.

"What are they saying?" Sango asked.

"I-I'm not entirely sure. Mulek Totosai rreus, korsucch-omortad… uh, mecchamek ren!"

"Mecchamek-omortad ccha cchomenenek le ma!" one of them said, and limp laughter rang around the Kwis. Kagome blushed, but got up and stepped back, letting children run forward carrying their pieces of cloth. They shook them over Regan's body before letting them float down to his skin and running back out of the ravine.

"Kagome…?" Sango whispered.

"Don't worry, they're just being jerks," she replied.

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

"Dalaek das, cchowek ya renk, mongrek renk Totosai moe."

"Haste dalaekoi cchowek ren kdaheo le kwis!" Kagome pleaded

"Sumecch… Ccharo, mongrekro Totosai. Kagome, cchomenenekro."

"Kagome…," Sango whimpered.

"Shh, it's going to be okay," Kagome replied. She began speaking in Kwis, but halted, shook her head several times, and growled in frustration again and again. Eventually her story was complete and she looked up pleadingly at the man in front of her.

The Kwis stared at her intently for a moment. "Ngekoi ngong le meh len,"

"Shit, he has no idea what I just said," Kagome whispered. The kwis started to move out of the way as a tall, wrinkled demon with huge eyes and a wisp of grey hair hobbled down the ravine bank. "Oh thank you Inari."

The demon stared at the body for a moment, then flicked his gaze to the weapon laying next to Inuyasha's wallowing form. The demon peered closer at Regan, bent over and took a long, loud sniff. Then he turned to Kagome and said, "*This boy's dead.*"

"*…_Yes_, Dr. Totosai, we noticed,*" Kagome replied.

"*How did he die?*" He asked, looking back down at the body.

"*It was an accident,*" Kagome said. "*He and Inuyasha - - oh, the guy over there - - came over the hill bank and-*"

"*Oh, so _that_ is your famous Inuyasha?*" Totosai said in his high, nasal voice, looking back to the half-demon with a scholar's gaze. "*Not bad. Don't blame you child,*"

"*Doctor, there's a dead guy at your feet. Please focus,*" Kagome said, hand firmly planted on her forehead.

Totosai said nothing. He just continued to peer at Inuyasha, tilting his head back and forth as if trying to discern all of the sniffling man's angles. "Hmm…"

"…I don't mean to be impatient, but there is a spear being pointed at my face," Sango said warily.

"Das!?" One of the Kwis barked.

" Cchowek renk… renk… hell, Totosai, I need you to translate for me! Please explain that this was an accident!"

"*I'm not so sure it was an accident…,*" Totosai replied, still staring at Inuyasha. The old demon hopped over the body and grabbed hold of Inuyasha's face, staring right into his eyes. Inuyasha grabbed onto the ground to stabilize himself, but otherwise didn't move.

"Hm…,"Totosai said, sitting back. "*What happened, young man?*"

Inuyasha's face blanked for a moment before he said, "*W-we were… we were trying to find S-Sango-*"

"*No no no, what happened to you when you were young?*" He asked.

"*I…* what?"

"Hmm…," Totosai leaned back, still staring at the half-demon. "*Who did you see first when you came over the hill?*"

"I… I don't know, *why do you want to kno-*"

Totosai turned on his heel and walked over to the Kwis, talking to them with an elegant swirl to the language Kagome butchered. She hunched over in defeat.

"What did he just say?" Sango asked.

"…I have no idea," Kagome replied. The crowd started staring at Inuyasha, some pitifully, others disapprovingly. But the weapons were lowered. Totosai said something else, and most of the villagers began dispersing, though two elder women descended into the mud, tears on their face, and started a wailing song. Children appeared over the ravine bank again with more pieces of cloth and started shaking them over Regan's body again, letting them fall to cover his body.

"We're going to discuss things in a council," Totosai said. "You three had best come with. And you fellow, Inuyasha… leave the knife thrower here, and don't expect to get it back."

* * *

He was beyond abominable; that was Sango's conclusion. She had no idea what was being shouted around her amongst the Kwisk - - or was it Qistk? She rolled her eyes; as if nomenclature really mattered in a world of life and murder. She leaned back against one of the support beams of the veranda, crossing her arms and glaring at the white haired devil.

'That was stupid though…' she thought at herself. 'Saying that to Kagome while he was right in front of her… I'm going to have to apologize after all of this is over… I just got her back and I'm already screwing things up…'

More shouting. Dr. Totosai nodded a few times while his bulging eyes flew from one blue person to another, and then he turned to the loathsome Inuyaha, wallowing in the dirt as he should be. "*We want to know why you came here – why you ALL came up here to the Kwis lands.*"

"*It was…*" Inuyasha stuttered. Kagome stepped forward towards Totosai as if to say something, but the people in the veranda screamed viciously and she cowered back. The doctor said something in gibberish that calmed a few of the people nearby him, but others simply shook their head and slammed their fists against support beams in anger. Sango looked in the direction several of the Kwisk were waving towards in rage, the direction of the research facility.

Totosai started screaming over the others in the Kwis language - - mecchamek something-something - - and suddenly the group was quiet. Sango stared at Kagome, willing her to make eye contact and deliver some explanation, but neither came.

"*All three of you need to explain yourselves, though I warn you that no matter how you answer you are going to be driven out of the village. Answer carefully and truthfully.*" Totosai said.

"All three, what did -?" Sango was cut off by more screaming and Kwis throwing their hands over their ears. Now Kagome looked at her, though with a look of '_SHUT UP BEFORE YOU DIE!' _panic.

There was more yelling, pointing at Kagome. One young voice screamed over the others, and once again for a moment the veranda was silent. Sango pulled herself up from her cower so she could look towards the center of the group, where she saw the young woman - - Neout-Lay Kagome called her? - - standing in the middle and speaking quickly, ardently. After a few moments a few Kwisk wagged their heads back and forth and crossed their arms, but others did not seem abated.

"*Kagome, you need to go first - - don't bother speaking in Kwis, you have no idea how to reply.*"

Kagome glared at him for a moment, but nodded. Sango ignored the annoyed looks members of the community threw at her as she pushed forward, craning to hear her friend clearer.

"*I came… well… I came here… I think because I ran away…," She said, pausing to allow Totosai time to translate. More yells replied, and eventually the doctor asked. "* Ran away from what?*"

"*Everything and nothing,*" She said.

"* You know I can't say that, be more specific,*" Totosai said with a wheezy sigh. Sango frowned and looked at her friend; why was 'everything and nothing' not a good enough response?

"* I don't know what I ran from,*" Kagome said again. Sango scoffed. "*But I ran away from it just the same. I came here to find peace, to-*"

In the middle of Totosai's translation violent screaming rang out again, this time solely from the men. Sango squeezed her face between her hands. _Good god, I have no fucking idea what's going on!_

"*You, half-demon, why did you come?*" Totosai asked.

Inuyasha's eyes darted around the room, before returning to the ground. The elder demon cleared his throat a few times and muttered something that tweaked Inuyasha's ears.

"*I… I came because… I was asked to, or I volunteered, or… does it even matter?*"

"*Of course it matters, keep going,*" Totosai replied.

"*Fine, I'm—I came because I was on a mission. With… with Regan, we were sent to catch her,*" he nodded his head to Sango. "*And bring her back to the facility because they thought she is a spy, but she isn't a—*"

Sango found herself pinned to the ground as yelling surged through the room. Someone's foot was pushed against her mouth until suddenly all of the pressure was removed. After taking a moment to gasp she looked up and saw that Inuyasha was pushing people off of her as Totosai roared. "OTOMEWESKUAL ASTCCHENK CCHA!?"

"Sure, whatever dude," Sango rasped picking herself up. A moment later she found herself pinned against a pillar with two blazing, beady eyes burning into her.

"*Are you a spy!?*" Totosai roared.

"Wha-? No! Of course not!"

"*We have had no reason for trouble with the facility since I left that place and if I find out we were harboring spies—*"

"I'm not a spy!* I'm not even from this planet, who would I spy for!?*"

"Planet- - *what? What do you mean you're not from this planet!? What the hell do you mean!?*"

"I was the spy!" Kagome screamed. For a moment the veranda was silent, Totosai turning around slowly and glaring at her with red sclera.

"*…what?*"

Kagome swallowed hard. "I… I was spying on the Yokai Republic… sort of. I came here originally to learn the origin of the demons and the origin of the Kwis. I was researching those things when I first arrived in Polis several months ago after the space ship carrying me, my family, and Sango crashed in Prialata Bay. But… someone from the Y.R. tried to kill us to keep us from learning about those origins. So… I came up with the idea to come up to the Kwis lands to learn about the origins of the Kwis, and thereby the origins of the demons, because we found that the two are connected somehow… during the, uh, reign of the Silver Emperor."

Totosai continued staring at her with red eyes, though he didn't move. After a few moments he took a heavy breath, letting out shots of steam from his nostrils. The Kwis nearby were muttering what Kagome knew was a request for translation: "I don't understand, she say what? "

"*Why… from another planet?*" Totosai asked.

"*Yes… a planet called Earth. Everyone on Beji is descendant from the colonizers from my… our… home planet.*"

"*This… this is preposterous, blasphemous to many…*" Totosai said while processing. "*Why did you leave this Earth?*"

"…a lot of reasons…," Kagome replied. "*My father… he was the first colonial governor of a Japanese colony called New Noto. My family was supposed to go to him here,*" she paused a moment, unsure whether to share the theory that Takoku Higurashi was probably the Silver Emperor. She was already challenging Dr. Totosai's world view enough, and was going to challenge that of the village when a translation finally came around. "*but… there was a mistake on our space shuttle, and we arrived a few thousand years late.*"

"*Now THAT is ridiculous—*"

"I made the mistake," Sango said. Totosai glared at her, his hands still clamped against her collar bone. "I was the co-pilot of the shuttle, and I put… I put in the coordinates - - I mean distance, I put in the distance in the wrong measurement. I… my mistake would have killed everyone on the ship if Kagome hadn't…" Sango frowned. "If Kagome hadn't known about extra fuel in the cargo bay… how did you know about the fuel, Kagome?"

"*Is this really the time to be asking?*"

"Well we may be about to die in a minute here, I figure now's better than never."

By now Kwis folk were pleading with Totosai for an explanation, so he began a fast translation while letting Sango go from her pillar.

"It was, uh…," Kagome gulped. "Um…"

"Kagome…"

"Look, it's really weird, and I don't expect you to believe it at all—"

"We are about to be killed in an alien planet by blue people – I'm open to lots of weird things at the moment." Sango shot back.

"Fair point," Kagome whispered. After wringing her hands for a few moments she shut her eyes and blurted out, "A-kitsune-conversed-with-me-while-I-was-in-cryo-s leep-and-told-me-about-a-problem-with-the-ship-and -just-to-tell-the-co-pilot-to-check-the-cargo-bay- and-he's-talked-with-me-a-few-times-since-then-but -gets-increasingly-more-vague-with-Inari-and-the-s ilver-emperor-and-gods-here-and… yeah."

"Kitsune?" Inuyasha asked in bewilderment near Totosai's feet. "Like—"

"No, not like a fox demon, as in… as in a servant to the kami who—"

"Wait, wait wait wait!" Sango said. "I… Kagome, what was the name of this Kitsune?"

"…Why do you want to-?"

"Paak! It was Paak wasn't it?" Sango cried out.

"Wha- how did you know that!?"

"When I was in the hospital with Miroku… Paak visited me too. I thought it was just a…," She trailed off as murmuring picked up amongst the Kwis. "Oh my god… oh my god. He told me this was going to happen. If I came back, I only just remembered, he said five people were going to die if I came back North, and I… I got Regan killed!"

"*Hold on, quiet, quiet everyone!* GALAKRO!" Totosai yelled. "*Let me get this straight…*"

Neout-Lay shoved her way through the crowd and ran up to Kagome. "Cchak cchemulek Paak? Otomeweleye manumek der, der kwuyektad renk tadusekma!"

"What's she saying?" Inuyasha asked.

Neout-Lay bent down to the dirt and started to draw the outline of a fox missing a small chunk of flesh from one ear. Kagome looked around and realized that Neout-Lay wasn't the only one; about a dozen of the Kwis, most of them she noted as spiritual workers, were drawing the same picture.

"Yeah, that's him!" Sango yelled. "That's the kitsune!"

"It is… Paak manumek," Kagome replied. "He's been visiting them, asking them to take care of us…"

* * *

The day's ruby light was starting to fade behind the jagged tree line. Inuyasha sat quietly next to the edge of the village, staring down at the ravine and the fresh mud that covered Regan's body. He looked at his hands, covered in blood and mud. His skin remained ivory white, and he hated that, that with a good wash it would look like nothing wrong had ever happened. He stared down at the grave and flattened his ears to keep out the sound of his mother's laugh.

"Inuyasha?"

He jumped and whipped his head around. Kagome was standing a few paces away, legs spread firmly, dirt and tan pressed into her skin. "It's time to go."

Obediently Inuyasha pushed himself up, but not before looking at the grave again, not before remembering cracking Regan's rigor mortis so he would rest in a fetal position. He turned and walked by, heading towards the main veranda. Kagome sighed behind him.

"What?" He asked.

"…Nothing I guess," Kagome said.

"Didn't sound like nothing."

"Don't talk to me like that," Kagome replied. "Don't talk to me like I don't deserve any respect."

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow beyond her sight. "All I'm saying is you sounded judgmental."

Before the last word crossed his mouth Kagome had already stalked past and was jogging towards the village center. For a moment Inuyasha felt a flicker of guilt, but the storm of thoughts, ramifications, and failures inside his mind quickly overwhelmed it. He was too tired to think or feel. Instead he slouched a little deeper and plodded on.

The village consuls had made their decision: all of the outsiders must leave the village, but because of the Paak incident they were being driven out with supplies and a coarse map instead of with a few missing limbs. Inuyasha ruminated over this as he heaved a satchel of fruit, dried meat, and rope onto his burdened shoulders. As he moved to start walking again, an elderly woman put a firm hand on his chest.

"Tadusek kwis, saekual der reseyec ccha. Haste, samanacchk ccha helanak seo ccha. Me kud moe saekekdang ccha."

"…what the hell does that mean?" Inuyasha whispered, but a moment later he found himself embraced in the old woman's wrinkled, blue embrace, her wiry hands pressing his head onto her shoulder.

The rush: memories of his mother, killing Regan, Kagome's laughter, Miroku's expression when he was leaving, when Miroku was bleeding out in the Nurse ward, the speckled pattern of the palace tiles when the king shoved his fist through Inuyasha's stomach, the chill in his stomach when Kaede spoke so fondly of his mother - -

Inuyasha gasped and pushed away from the embrace. "*I don't deserve anything,*"

The woman snatched his wrist with more strength than he expected. He turned around and glared at her, unaware of the tears beading up in his eyes.

"*Everyone deserves love and help,*" the woman whispered in perfect demon tongue. Inuyasha started and stepped back, rubbing his wrist. The woman smiled nakedly, giving him a small nod before adjusting her sole piece of clothing, a string of beads and leather around her waist, before hobbling out of the veranda.

"*how… how do you know-?!*" Inuyasha stuttered as he chased after her.

"*Come back. Visit. I tell you." She replied. She struggled a moment on the steps leading to the upper level of the village higher up on the hill, and Inuyasha took her hand to lead her up. At the top she smiled, nodded again, and then pushed him off before wandering down the dirt path away from the ravine.

"Iguto Prince!" Totosai yelled from beneath the veranda's reedy roof. "You have to leave now, before Meka sets!"

Kagome was wiping her mouth from a jug of water when Inuyasha descended. Sango looked at him with contempt for a moment before returning to focus on the tree-leaf map in her hands. Inuyasha pondered the old woman a moment longer before a solid push from behind him knocked him towards the tree line. Sango, Kagome, and he started down the path from the veranda, a troupe of Kwis close on their tail, with one pleading something to Kagome. It was the same girl that had spoken up about this Paak character… yet another thing to be confused about. The girl kept saying "sarang" this, "sarang" that… apparently it was an important word. But as the canopy's darkness descended on them and they began their quiet trek through the fallen trees, pit holes, and thicket of the jungle, Inuyasha's mind returned to the old woman, his mother, and Miroku.

They were going to have to get Miroku out of the facility, probably with research material if they could, before they could leave. But how were they going to be able to do that?

"Hold on a second," Kagome said. They had been hiking for a solid hour and breathing heavily; Sango clung onto a tree trunk to stop herself and look over at the other human.

"What is it?"

"…Neout-Lay… she was asking me not to go… saying she loved me and different thing…"

Girl on girl action? Inuyasha's ears perked up.

"Well… I guess romantic orientation norms among the Kwis are more open than other places…" Sango replied in a huff.

"That's not the point," Kagome replied. "I've been wondering why I was picking up kwis language so quickly, and I just realized that a lot of their words sounded familiar to me, and then… Sarang. Sarang means 'love' in Kwis, or in this dialect of it anyway," Kagome said.

"…There's got to be more to your revelation than that," Sango replied.

"There is… just catching my breath," Kagome replied. "Sarang also means 'Love' in Korean. The Kwis are Koreans… or what's left of them after whatever my father did to them."

"_What?!_" Sango gasped.

"… I don't get it," Inuyasha said. "Who are Koreans?"

"Koreans were the people who lived right next to the Japanese," Sango said. "And… the two have a very bad history with each other."

"In the 2030's a group of Korean ultra-nationalists bombed parts of Kyoto," Kagome said. "While the Japanese refused to acknowledge war crimes and atrocities, not to mention racism against Koreans, during their time colonizing Korea and during World War II. I didn't even know about any of it until I studied abroad in Daejeon…"

"Again, none of these that makes any—"

"My father messed with them!" Kagome growled. "He hated Koreans just like he hated Taiwanese and Chinese and anyone who was different than him, and tried to use anything he could to his own advantage. Whatever he did to make Demons he first tried to do to Koreans who landed on Beji, and… and you _SAW _what's happened to them. They've been shoved out of every society on the planet, put at the bottom of the caste system in the demon world, had their immune systems compromised with repeated damage to their chromosomes, at least according to what Sango and Miroku found out in the lab…

"Genetic testing. That's the only explanation," Kagome said, finishing in a whisper.

"…that's ridiculous—"

"What about their blue skin and eye color?" Sango asked, completely ignoring Inuyasha's rebuff. Kagome shook her head.

"That's not something genetic… they don't have Clarence rituals, so whatever water they drink is full of silver. That silver changes their skin color and irises… that's why they aren't born blue, they gain it over time."

"So is that why…?" Sango asked.

"Yup. I imagine my mother's going to freak when she finds out," Kagome replied.

"What? What are you talking about!?" Inuyasha huffed.

Sango glared at him and shook her head. "You wouldn't notice…"

Inuyasha was about to say, "Notice what?" when he caught sight of Kagome looking at him painfully, and then he realized… her eyes were silvery-blue.

* * *

Loooong-ass chapter. I keep saying I'm going to make them shorter but I just keep failing. I am disappoint with myself.  
Drake: You offered to help me with Spanish in the future - - YES PLEASE! My skills are only intermediate, and written grammar is the worst!

Though in other news…

1. I may be moving to NYC in August to continue my M.A. studies. However, if a new internship this summer turns into a job then I'm deferring and staying in the capital with awesome people.

2. I am starting a major writing project starting May 11 (my birthday!). I will be writing 1000 words a day on an original piece of fiction with the goal of having a completed rough draft by mid-July and a heavily edited first draft by mid-August. This will also be taking place while I'm reading lots of books to improve my skill.

2b. I WILL KEEP WRITING THE FANFICTION DURING THIS TIME! Don't worry, I'm not hiatusing again unless school work gets really bad.

3. I have a youtube channel with my twin sister! We honestly have no idea what the hell we're doing with it, but we're planning on figuring that out over the summer. If you'd like to 'meet' me digitally, send me a pm and I'll give you the youtube info. : )

Chapter preview:

Sango, Kagome, and Inuyasha attempt to bring Miroku out of the research facility and flee the region without killing each other, but things quickly spiral out of control. Who can they trust? Should they even trust themselves? These questions and more in the next installment of "Let's throw their hearts in a blender and see what happens!"


	22. Chapter 20

NOTE - - THIS IS CHAPTER 20. NOT CHAPTER 19.

I know, that may seem obvious, but I'm uploading this chapter the same day that I uploaded Chapter 19, and I know how easy it is to get mixed up with two updates in one day.

So…

IF YOU HAVE NOT READ CHAPTER 19 THEN GO BACK! OTHERWISE THERE WILL BE SPOILERS WITHIN THE FIRST FEW PARAGRAPHS!

* * *

Chapter 20

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A loud iron snap and painful light forced Kagome to rouse. Memories flickered in her mind… running through the jungle, slipping into the facility, finding Miroku, falling down the stairs, a D.F. officer over her rearing back with a beat stick…

Her forehead throbbed and her face rolled over to her shoulder. In that moment she realized she was tethered to a chair, and a pained moan told her Miroku was right behind her.

"Miro…" She dropped the word midway as one half of her face was numb, and her lips felt puffy and sensitive. Slowly her eyes opened. Her blurry, shadowy body slowly came into focus, as did the stained cement tiles beneath her bare feet. "Where…?"

"What… what is this?" she heard Miroku cough. She yelped when he struggled against the binds around his wrists.

"Yeow! Mirogu, stob, stob, we're died togedur!"

After a few moments he caught on and stopped. "Sorry… why… you sound weird, Kagome."

"My face iz num."

"What?"

"MY FACST IS NUMM!" Kagome yelled.

Kagome heard a tiny hiss and suddenly her back arched against the chair, her head slammed backwards, and her hands clenched so hard that her nails broke into her skin. There was no screaming, she couldn't get her lungs to produce air. Her heart sputtered, pounding against her chest like a train engine, and then suddenly it was over. She gasped for air and fell forward, her arms and legs shaking beyond her control.

"…electric chairs…," She whispered. It had felt like her body wanted to snap and fly away in pieces… but she was still alive. The shock only lasted a few seconds - - they were being tortured, not killed. '_But why…?_'

Kagome caught a flash of movement to her right, followed by faint thumping. She turned her head and blew at her matted hair so she could see… a mirror. But she knew that was no mirror, it was a window.

"Mirogu…" Kagome hacked. "They're… they're using us to ge' informa—"

There was a split second where their diaphragms pushed out a scream, but then the two slammed their skulls back against the backs of their chairs, hearts bursting in rapid fire, lungs frozen, minds exploding with barbed mental confetti that only made no sense when they were gasping for air again.

"TORTURE!" Kagome wailed at Miroku. "They're trying to hurt us to get someone to give information - - DON'T GIVE IN, DON'T TELL THEM ANY—"

Kagome felt her legs start shaking, then her vision went, though she was still conscious when she could breathe again. She gasped painfully before yelling, "*IS THAT ALL YOU GOT YOU MOTHERFUCKERS? *"

She waited… nothing. "*C'MON, BRING IT! WE'RE STRONGER THAN ANYTHING YOU CAN THROW AT US!* ESTAMOS FUERTE! BAEK JUL BUL GOOL!"

All she heard were air vents.

Miroku wasn't gasping for air.

"Miroku?" She shook his hands in her tethers. His hung limp. "Miroku, don't… don't mess with me like—"

Another shock. Maybe it was lower voltage because it didn't throw her back as harshly and her heart didn't flutter as painfully as the last one had… or maybe her body was already giving in.

"Gah!..." she yelled as the electricity flowed away. She took a few breaths, but started shaking Miroku's hands again. "Miroku, stay with me! C'mon, you can do this, fight it! You gotta stay awake!"

She shook her arms back and forth wildly, screaming as loud as she could. "YOU'RE NOT FUCKING DEAD YOU LECHEROUS EGG-HEAD, SO DON'T GO ACTING LIKE IT, YOU'RE STRONGER THAN THIS!"

She heard a weak gasp behind her.

"Miroku! C'mon, wake up, wake up!"

"You… are not quiet…," he rasped.

"That's the fucking idea - - HE'S ALRIGHT!" Kagome yelled.

"Who… yelling at…?"

"No idea, but whoever it is needs to knoooOOOAAAAA!"

The bolt of electricity felt like it wanted to surge up and out of her throat like spit-fire. Kagome's muscles glued themselves against the chair, but just a moment later she was breathing again.

"WE'RE GONNA BE ALRIGHT! THIS SUCKS, BUT WE'RE MADE OF STRONGER STUFF THAN THIS SHIT! WE'RE GONNA BE ALRIGHT!"

She gasped and fell forward, face and drool in her lap. She didn't believe what she was saying at all. She wanted to give in, get out of the pain… but… she couldn't let her friends fall. She wasn't going to let them—

The lights went out.

"What…?" Miroku whispered.

"Dunno…" Kagome replied. Metallic clinking rustled nearby before a door swung open, throwing a pillar of light and shouts into the room. But the hands that stuffed bags over Kagome's head and started dragging her out weren't saying anything. Kagome could only make out two voices before she slipped out of the waking world: Kagura screaming about someone being out of line, and Sango's unintelligible sobbing.

* * *

Shadowy days gave Kagome time to replay what all had happened in her mind. The torture room… it was a mixed memory. It was the last time she'd felt strong until the hunger came. Her last meal was two days ago; a spoonful of boiled bean mash. That's what she assumed anyway, but now… she no longer cared about food. She'd grown used to the pain in her belly and the boniness of her cheeks. She'd grown used to feeling her pelvis protrude out more and more each day, to the point that she could feel the socket where her femur joined her hip. Menstruation stopped long ago.

What she focused on now was the mountain of silence. On rare occasion footsteps would hammer by her lightless cell, and sometimes she could almost make out the sound of someone's voice. For a while she hoped it was Sango's or Miroku's… and then even Inuyasha's coming to open the door.

But slowly…

The fatigue slipped in…

And her hope whispered away in the night.

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In silence we find ourselves, someone once told her.

Beauty is in silence.

Truth lives in silence.

This beautiful truth Kagome found was hunger, blindness, and isolation.

Moreover, Kagome wasn't someone she wanted to be around.

She had been an idiot for so many reasons…for thinking Inuyasha might care about her as more than just an acquaintance, for running away and traumatizing Sango, for spending all her time studying in Japan instead of trying to get to know people her age, for selfishly pursuing knowledge and reducing her brother to a vegetable, and especially… leaving Earth, for surrendering home. She should have flat out refused to leave, convinced her mother to make a run for it…

But that was all done, and nothing could ever change it. Kagome's head drifted backwards slowly, touched the cold, rough concrete. Light coming in from beneath the cell door illuminated the scratches she'd made on the ground, the tallies she used to count the days… it stopped at forty-four because that was the day she realized counting was useless.

Tears had been spilled on a wasted life.

Energy spent on pounding against the door.

Wishes had run their course to a dry lakebed.

Now the world wanders…

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Footsteps.

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Kagome's eyes opened slowly, listening to each foot-clack draw closer… then stop in front of her door. Food maybe? There was a pause… no, no food. The small opening at the bottom of the door would have been unlocked and opened by now. There was a jingle of keys, a heavy thunk, and the door opened.

Kagome closed her eyes to avoid the pain of light. Then she was back in silence… but the room was warm. Someone was inside with her now.

"Who are you?" Kagome asked, not bothering to open her eyes.

"…I thought you were stronger than this," Kagura's lush voice echoed back.

"Ah…," Kagome replied.

"Look…," Kagura said, though she then said nothing. There were just the sounds of ruffling fabric. "I wish I didn't have to do this, dear, I really do… I got you out of the worst of it, okay? At least you didn't have to go through what your friend did."

Her friend…? "Who? Who are you talking about?"

"…I can't tell you."

"No… no you can't…" Kagome's head returned to resting against the wall. "That'd mean… you would have to break the rules… can't have _that_…"

"You've studied politics and international relations, you know how these things work," Kagura said with a quivering voice. Kagome remained silent.

"You know… I know you know how this… oh forget it," Kagura hissed.

"What do you want to know?" Kagome asked. Kagura stopped her movement towards the door. "You have Sango's gun... Your people have had enough time… to find out… how it works… so you want weapons, and information… but if that was it, I'd be dead. So… what do you want? To know how much I know.. about demons and kwis?... stupid way to go about it…"

Kagura remained still and silent. Eventually Kagome heard a slow sigh.

"…Do you even know what you want?" Kagome asked. There was no reply. "…Ah… they've got a bug on you… I guess now I've proven myself to be very dangerous…"

"…quite…," Kagura replied.

"Half dead girl seeing through intelligence strategy and organizational information sharing in half a minute… either I'm stupid smart or you all are getting some crappy instructions."

"…instructions? What makes you think keeping you locked up isn't my idea?"

"You're bugged. This isn't your idea," Kagome replied. "Ah… I bet your visit was meant to inspire hope, to keep me trudging on about escape and unfocused on the Yokai Republic's prerogatives. Even at the beginning… saying 'I'm stronger than this,'… that was very clever. Used to affront me so I'd get angry and confused…

"But I'll give this to Mr. Hitomi… I still don't know why he's keeping me here, alive… Clever bastard, haven't figured out that one."

"... Thanks for calling me clever," Kagura slurred before opening the door, stepping out, and slamming it shut.

Kagome cracked a grin. She didn't realize she still had the energy to be a smart ass.  
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More days…

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less food…

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Kagome started scratching days into the floor, using the light outside her door, or lack thereof, to measure when one day began and another ended. She scratched twenty marks into the ground before giving up again. Had it been four days since she'd given up? Or was it five? It didn't matter. Kagome sucked on the matted ends of her hair, hoping some nutrients that had escaped her before would reach her now.

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Footsteps, fast. Kagome didn't bother to open her eyes, let alone look at the door. Laying on her side, she waited patiently for death to open the door. There was a jingle of keys, and then blinding light.

"Oh mother of fire…,"

…Wait a second…that voice… Kagome knew that voice. Two warm fingers pressed against Kagome's neck, feeling her pulse.

"By the mothers, thank goodness. C'mon Kagome, we have to get you out of here," Someone whispered.

"Who…?" Kagome asked, straining to open her eyes.

"Stay quiet…fuck, I can lift you with one arm…"

Kagome found herself standing, holding the hand of someone dressed in a military uniform. "Get in here," the person said, leading Kagome towards a crate. After a moment Kagome realized the crate was built into a food cart. A façade.

"Who…?" Kagome asked as she slipped inside, but right before the person shut the crate she looked Kagome right in the eye and pressed a finger across her lips.

"Koan Secret Service Agent Kikyo Morewood," she whispered.

Kagome slipped into a corner of the crate, which had holes in the top to both breath out of and see through. She was getting out? What about Sango? Miroku? What about Inuyasha? How did Kikyo get in? How did she… Kagome took a deep breath as her head spun in her questions. Not enough blood sugar to process all of this. The cart swerved to the right, making Kagome thump against the side of the crate… and also making something thump against her bony hip. Her hand reached down to find… a small stack of cookies. Kagome started shaking as she pushed one up to her lips, and started hiccupping and crying as chocolate chips melted in her dry mouth.

A distinctive clunk against the back of the crate informed Kagome she was being too loud. She pushed the rest of cookie into her mouth as quietly as possible.

The cart pulled into an elevator, Kikyo pressed a button, and the doors closed. After the first ping, the secret service agent said, "Sango and Miroku are fine, we got them out months ago, but they transferred you and Inuyasha before we could get to you. Scoot to the front of the crate, I'm going to need room to get the prince in there."

_The prince… _that had been a point of contention once, hadn't it? Kagome didn't really care right now - - she clawed her way forward, positioning herself near one of the air holes. There was some kind of fabric stretched over the hole - - Kagome guessed so that no one would realize there were a bunch of holes in the bottom of a food cart.

The elevator opened, and a rush of frigid air slashed Kagome's face. After a moment's hesitation Kikyo pushed the crate forward into the dark corridor, lined with rooms on both sides. She turned the cart to the right once, then to the left… and Kagome began to realize there was something seriously wrong. Why in the world were there _this_ many containment cells in the Youkai Republic? How many people were held up here?... How many had already died here, with no one to come and save them…?

The cart rolled to a stop at the end of a hallway, room number S90-09. Kikyo stepped forward, found a key, opened the door, and pushed the cart inside.

Kagome felt bits of chocolate-chip cookie rebel against her stomach at the stench. Rotting flesh, urine, stagnant sewage, all made worse by the blaring heat, intense light, and white noise blasting from loud speakers. She peered through the hole after Kikyo shut the door behind them and ran towards the center of the room… Where Inuyasha had been hung upside down, naked, with thick wires and tubes jutting out of his raw, bloody skin. Kikyo cursed something as she cut the cords connected to Inuyasha's limbs and stuck bags of blood to their ends… Kagome realized then that the tubes were harvesting blood from Inuyasha's bones.

Kikyo carefully unhooked Inuyasha from the spades pinned through his back that held him upside down, and carried him back to the cart. No need to check that he was still alive...

…but no doubt insane…

The crate door opened and Inuyasha lurched inside, still bleeding profusely. In the moment that the light streamed into the cart Kagome saw layers of towels padding the bottom of the crate. Kikyo had planned well.

The door to the cell opened. "Wha- oh shit—"

There were sounds of a jump, a muffled scream, severed flesh, and then someone fell to the ground. Running steps splashed back to the cart. "Time to run for it," Kikyo muttered under her breath.

Kikyo hurtled through the corridors back to the elevator, throwing Kagome and Inuyasha against the sides of the crate, against each other, and against flying cookie fragments. Inuyasha's body slammed into Kagome's when they suddenly stopped - - a click and ping informed her that they were in the elevator.

"Shit, why the hell did he have to go down there _then_…?" Kikyo hissed. "I'm taking you guys to food storage. You have to make absolutely sure you hold your breath from the time I leave the elevator to the time I get you to storage, got it? There are demons and half-demons crawling all over the place that are going to pick up the scent of blood, that's normal, but if they smell your breath we're all done for. After that you need to stay in the cart and stay as quiet as you can until I can get the truck around to pick you up; it'll take me about an hour.

"And Kagome… if he can't hold his breath, cover his mouth. Needless to say you're the more with it of the two of you." Kikyo said. There was a ping. "Shit, someone else is getting on the elevator - - hold your breath now!"

Kagome took a deep breath but saw Inuyasha wasn't moving - - still breathing though. She leaned forward and pressed a hand across his mouth, feeling his ragged, dry lips against her boney palm.

"*Afternoon,*" a deep voice said, stepping into the elevator. "Third floor please."

Third floor. Kagome guessed that the food storage room would be on the ground floor… and they were still somewhere underground… she assumed. The upward drift of the elevator confirmed her guess. Her lungs started straining against her clamped jaw when the elevator pinged again. Kikyo pulled the cart backwards a bit, and two other people got into the elevator. "Hello Entei, how're you?"

"Fine Yura, what floor?"

"Ground please…"

The doors closed, the elevator pinged, and up they went. Kagome realized as the doors opened again at the ground floor that just because Mr. Entei dude was going to the third floor they could still get off at the ground level before him. Right. She might be able to figure out strategic intelligence flaws while deathly emaciated, but elevator mechanics? Nope.

Kikyo pushed the cart out as Kagome pressed her mouth onto Inuyasha's skin. She wasn't entirely sure what she was pressing herself up against, just that it would help her keep her keep her for just a little longer… a little longer… a little more… her head was pounding, getting louder, her lungs quaking—

"And we're here," Kikyo whispered. Kagome's exhale burst like an inverted gasp, and she lay her head forward against Inuyasha's skin. "Stay still and stay quiet - - you never know when someone will come in here. I'll be back in one hour."

"Got it…" Kagome rasped. As Kikyo's footsteps moved away, Kagome realized there was something hot against her foot. She turned her head a bit to see what it was but her head just couldn't turn enough. She repositioned her other leg and slumped back a bit… and realized that she had had her face… no, her mouth, plastered up against Inuyasha's nipple. She looked over to her foot, pressed against the side of the crate, and then looked back down to the bloody towels.

Inuyasha may have lost a lot of blood but apparently not enough to prevent him from having a huge erection.

Kagome pulled the offended foot out of the way of the stiff member, which made a solid thunk against the side of the crate, and brought her leg back to the rest of her body. This was not exactly how she pictured… well… this happening. There had been a few dreams and day-light fantasies where… well… her mind had wandered into a place that made her lower lips feel very warm. But…

Kagome peered over her knees at Inuyasha's face. A bit of tubing stuck out of his jaw, and his eyes remained closed and in pain. Her eyes flitted over to his penis and… she had no point of reference, but it certainly wasn't small. The shiny head slowly dipped out of view as it deflated and Kagome felt something else warm on her toes. She looked down and found a small tube sticking out of Inuyaha's side, oozing blood onto her feet.

She reached down and took hold of the small tube and jerked a little bit, evoking a slight wince of pain from Inuyasha's face. After twirling it around for a moment in her fingers she assessed that the tube went all the way down to his Pelvis. This needed to come out.

"Inuyasha…" Kagome whispered. "Can you hear me?"

No response.

"Inuysasha, these tubes need to come out…but-"

"…ache m ow…," he muttered.

"What?"

"...bleez… take 'em out…" he rasped.

Kagome nodded and leaned down to the one in his hip. She found small pins stuck into his skin near where the tube was inserted. With wrinkled, shaking fingers she pulled out the pins, sticking them out one of the air holes, and then carefully took hold of the tube. Much to her surprise it slipped out of his body easily, though Inuyasha clenched his teeth shut and cursed beneath his breath. She looked over her shoulder for a place to put the tube, and eventually settled for next to a pile of cookie crumbs. She looked back to the wound to put pressure on it and cover it with a piece of the towel, but she found the wound already sealed shut. She peered closer and blinked several times before allowing herself to believe what she was seeing: muscle rebuilding, dermis regrowing, and upper levels of skin smoothing over the hole.

"That's a neat trick," she muttered. She hung there several moments, exhausted and breathing heavily. A deep exhale, and the glint of bloody tubes in the little sunlight slipping into the crate, reminded Kagome that she had a job to do. She found two cookie halves, stuck one in her mouth an in his, and then set to pulling out the pins surrounding the tubes in his left arm. A few minutes later she pulled out the tubes, and again marveled at how quickly his skin was healing.

"I lied…," Inuyasha whispered as Kagome pulled out the pins around a tube in his knee-cap.

"What?"

"I lied about the… the game. Plum wine, the game on the train," He replied.

Kagome took a moment to breath before pulling out the last pin. "We… can talk… about it later,"

"Later I won't talk about it…" Inuyasha pleaded.

"…what… did you lie about?" Kagome wheezed as she pulled out the tube with a pop.

"Guh…it was… it was about… fuck, can't say it…" Inuyasha replied.

"…a hint," Kagome whispered, moving down to the pins and tubes protruding from his shin. _Anything to keep your mind off the pain._

"It was… something… I don't know a hin—no, Miroku. Miroku does… gah… a lot of it."

Kagome's mind was focused on the pins. "What does he do a lot of?"

"You know… with women,"

Kagome paused. Miroku… women…so sex. Inuyasha was talking about sex… was sex one of the things they talked about that evening on the train? She couldn't remember… but slowly images came back to her, and she remembered people asking about who had ever had sex. Inuyasha said he lied… his answer then was…?

She gulped and tried to kill the little, barbed-wire ball of despair in her gut from sapping the little energy she had left. She rested her body against the side of the crate, coaxing out one of the tubes with one hand. "You lied about being a virgin…"

There was silence for a moment, "… sort of,"

_Here I am, next to you, helping saving your life, and you still manage to hurt me… what the hell Inuyasha. I… don't even know anymore._ "Why… do you say… sort of?"

There was a pause. Kagome looked up at his face, which was stuck somewhere between numb and anguish. She let her eyes close as her heart hammered in pain, her fingers finding another tube and pulling it out.

"My mother," he eventually said.

"…What about her?" Kagome asked, finding the pins around the tube jutting out of Inuyasha's heel.

"…It was her. She… the sex…"

Kagome pulled the tube out of Inuyasha's heel right as she realized what he was telling her. Blood squirted out from his tendon, trickled and stopped before tender skin replaced it. She looked across the crate at his face, but his tube-laden hand was covering it.

"Your mother… slept with… had…_forced_ sex with you…?" Kagome repeated quietly.

A door opened not that far away, and unfamiliar voices and footsteps drew near. Kagome took a quick gulp of air before letting her muscles go limp. Inuyasha took a gasp of air too and held it. Part of his hand moved away so she could see his eyes, amber but dark, connecting with hers.

Had he been hanging upside down, getting sunburned and deafened and having his blood harvested for months? For MONTHS… and somehow… somehow _this _was what plagued him. How in the world…?

The information slowly processed through her brain, and she realized his growing scowl was a response to her gaze… and what she felt. She felt pity. She was pitying him.

Kagome focused in on his eyes again, and saw something strange. He was neither the soft young boy she'd seen on rare occasion nor was he the angry, closed man she'd met. He was someone who was tired and hurt, but alive.

He was afraid.

Kagome slowly reached out to his hand and left hers there, letting him choose to take it or not. As unseen people gathered food and barked quips at each other, Inuyasha's hand slowly reached up and took hers. His grip was strong and deliberate.

She took a breath, closed her eyes, and nodded slowly.

_You've never told this to anyone have you…?_ Kagome thought. _You've never… even seen this in yourself…_

Sitting there, holding his had, Kagome put her chin on her knees. _Have I been focused on myself too much with you? Only wanting affirmation of feelings… I knew there was something bothering you, but I didn't realize… it would be_…

A nearby cart rolled away towards the doorway, and after a few moments the room was quiet again. Kagome waited a little longer to exhale just in case there was a quiet straggler. Peering out the air holes, she saw no one.

"Wow…," She eventually said. "That… does anyone else… know?"

He carefully shook his head. He swallowed hard and his face contorted. "I didn't want to kill him, I didn't mean to," he gulped. His grip on her hand tightened. "I didn't, I just, I saw you and I don't know what happened, I saw her again, and it happened and then…"

Kagome scooted forward as Inuyasha started to sob. She heaved with all her wasted self to bring him up to a sitting position and brought him into the crook of her neck. Part of her wanted to let him know that it was going to be alright, that she was starting to see why he acted the way he did, but another part of her wanted him to shut up lest someone hear the sobbing taking place in a storage room.

"I know you hate me, I hate what I did, I'm worthless shit, I'm so sorry, I just-"

"Shh, I don't hate you Inuyasha, it's okay, it's going to be okay…"

"But-but I killed a man! I—"

Kagome clamped her hand over his mouth. "Inuyasha, we have to be quiet. I'm sorry… we have to be quiet, we're still in a lot of danger right now…"

She felt him bite his lip and squeeze his eyes shut as he tried to quiet his sobs, and Kagome just held him. It was really all she could do. After a few minutes his body stopped shaking and his breathing slowed, so she started pulling the pins out of the tube's jutting out from his spine. Minutes slowly passed as she worked her way down his back, and eventually he pulled himself up, wiped at his eyes with his charred hands, and started pulling pins and tubes out of the parts of his body he could reach.

As they pulled the last tubes out of his leg they heard a deep rumbling nearby. A few moments passed, and then squeaking door swung open. It was dark outside and icy air slipped into the crate. Kagome's body closed up and shivered once, pitifully. Inuyasha pulled her body closer to his.

"…what did they do to you?" he asked.

"…n-n-n-nothing… comp-p-par-r-red to y-y-you," She wheezed. "Jus-s-s-st… elect-t-tric ch-chair… w-w-w-w-water b-b-oar-r-ding… ac-c-cid steam… st-t-arvation… ahhh… you're warm."

"…you're a pretty tough cookie, Kagome Higurashi," Inuyasha whispered.

"…thanks," she whispered. She was still angry at him for how he had treated her in the Kwis lands… but now was not the time to bring that up, in part because she was too tired to and in part because she was too cold to risk an argument.

Plus people might wonder why a box was having verbal exchanges with itself.

"Which ones go to the recycling center Ms. Mowa?" a deep voice asked outside.

"Those four carts over there," Kikyo's voice called out. "Plus that piping right there… c'mon guys, chop chop, I'm already running late."

_Leave it to Kikyo to be nasty for unstated reasons…_ Kagome thought. Her face slipped into the crook between Inuyasha's legs and his chest, and for a moment she thought about freaking out about being so close to his genital area, but what did it really matter? If she was alive, or if she were about to die, did it _really_ matter if she tried to shy away from him? Or from something that might be contrived as a sexual encounter?

_ In the dark silence between life and death, do any of the things I committed myself to really matter?_

_Do I have to see beauty in all things? Do I have to evade the beauty in all things? Maybe when I see it all I have to do is note it. That's all. Just…_

_ Live._

The cart slammed into something hard, and within moments the crate fell into darkness as another large door slammed. It was still cold, but at least the wind wasn't getting in. A motor revved beneath them, and with a gentle lurch they were driving.

"Kagome… hey, you gotta stay awake," she heard Inuyasha say.

_Fuck that shit, I am sleepy and warm._

"Kagome c'mon, stay awake, don't go freezing to death,"

_Ah… he's got a point._

"Okay," Kagome whispered. "But you have to help me stay awake till we get to where we're going."

"Uh… okay… maybe play a game?"

"Not basketball, I suck at it," she said.

"Wha-? No, never have I ever."

"Okay, fine, let's do it,"

"Never have I ever… had a sunburn all over my body until, uh… a few months ago," Inuyasha coughed. "That wasn't a good one."

"Learning curves. They're bitches," Kagome replied. She smiled when she felt his ribs shimmer with laughter.

"Okay… never have I ever been to Earth," Inuyasha said.

"You did that on purpose…" Kagome whispered. "…I don't have anything to drink."

"…well, alcohol would just make you sleepier anyway," Inuyasha said.

"True… okay… never have I ever met someone who could go through… months of intense torture and… come out… functional," Kagome said. "Until now."

"That's not how the game works," Inuyasha replied.

"I've had a grand total of 200 calories in the past week, give me a break."

"Yet you still have the energy to be a wise-ass," Inuyasha replied.

"Wise-assery doesn't run on carbohydrates, it runs on pure awesome."

"Touché."

It was quiet for a moment. "Never have I ever wanted Cheetos as bad as I want some right now."

"What are Cheetos?"

"…you probably don't want to know," Kagome replied. Slowly her eyes opened. "You know, maybe I shouldn't be talking to your penis."

"Wha-!? I—"

"Can you help me roll over?" Kagome asked. After a moment she felt Inuyasha's hands grab her shoulders, lift her up, and turn her over so her face was looking up into his.

"Your turn," Kagome said.

Inuyasha nodded and closed his eyes. A sudden flash of light through the back of the truck illuminated his face, and she saw that his hair had tangled into asymmetric dreadlocks and matts.

"Never have I ever felt like I could rely on someone," He whispered. Kagome stayed silent but looked up at him, feeling his chest inhale sharply.

"Me neither," Kagome said with a yawn.

"Do you think that will ever change? And stay awake."

"Fine… well, what does it look like and feel like to rely on someone?"

"…I don't know,"

"Imagine," Kagome said.

"Okay… talking to someone about what really matters… feeling like that person won't ever run away no matter what…"

"So… this," Kagome replied, tapping a bony finger between his chest and her face.

"What? I… is _this_ what it's like?" He asked, more to himself than to her. "Is _this_…?"

"Gotta be honest Inuyasha… in the Kwislands, you were a first class ass-hat to everyone, not just me. You hurt me a lot… whether you knew it or not. If you don't like me or don't want me around, okay, but—"

"Of course I like you… Kagome… You should have a nickname," Inuyasha muttered at the end.

"Kags has worked in the past," Kagome replied. "But not the point. I… I ran away because I couldn't take getting hurt anymore."

Inuyasha was silent, but Kagome felt his lungs tighten. "Sango said it ages ago… I was really head over heels for you back then. When things started with Kikyo, and then when you yelled at me… it felt like something died in me, like beauty died in me."

Again, he said nothing, and Kagome couldn't see anything. But she felt his muscles tensing terribly.

"You're attracted to who you're attracted to, and you've got the past you've got, and you've got the direction you want… I get all of that, and I know I'm not really in your big picture, okay? That's my problem, not yours.

"But you're one of the only people I've ever met who knows what I go through, who's lived this life and wants to live better… truly better. And when your head isn't up your ass you are fun to be around, not to mention a great source of intelligent conversation. Usually."

Inuyasha coughed a laugh. When he sniffed Kagome realized he was crying.

"I don't want to loose you in my life," she said. "So whatever happens, we've got to be there for each other, got it?"

After a few moments Kagome felt Inuyasha's arms wrap around her and pull her up into a disfigured hug.

"You're gonna stay?" Inuyasha whispered.

"Yes," Kagome replied. "On the condition that you are not an ass hat."

"Okay… I'll try to do that."

"Now… is it my turn?"

The game continued on long after the truck crossed the Upper Merican border.

* * *

1. Baek jul bul gool is Korean for "Indomitable spirit."

2. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to look at chocolate cookies, or 'never have I ever', the same way again after writing this.

3. Have to admit it - - at the end of this chapter I was listening to Who You Are by Jessie J. It came on iTunes and… it just clicked.


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